A Note to My 17 Year Old Self

I realize that I'm not quite yet 30, yet it seems that so much has changed in the months and years since I was last considered an adolescent (aka, NOT an "official" adult).  I've come to learn that I am what is considered "old-school"...meaning, the lessons my parents and teachers taught me are now basically extinct, along with the fact that my own perceptions of what was once considered proper is no more.  Below is a note to my 17 year old self.  I highly recommend that all current 17 year olds (hell, even those of you who are a few years older) read it and consider the importance of some, if not all, of the items I mention.


Dear 17 Year Old Freeway:


In a little more than ten years from today, you will be a full-fledged adult.  This means, you won't be able to call your parents, grandparents, or really any other family members to "bail" you out of random and screwed up situations.


You will be responsible for going to work day in and day out, paying ridiculous bills that in the end truly have no merit (credit card bills, utility bills, car notes, mortgages, grocery bills, etc.), and you will constantly wish that you could revert back to being 17.  Although, right now, the age of 17 totally sucks to you.  You can't drink right now (well, legally), you're still in school, you work a bullshit job for minimum wage, and you have a curfew.  Granted, the curfew is government-imposed, but it still sucks.


You will encounter many people over the next ten years who will lie to you, use you, take advantage of you, steal from you, talk about you behind your back, and in a few rare cases, you will make friendships and allies that will be with you til your dying day.


Some important lessons to consider from your 17th Birthday forward:


1)  Only be concerned with your own happiness.  If you worry too much about pleasing others, you will never find the time needed to please yourself and pursue that which makes you happy.


2)  Work hard, but try your best to either work at a job that is meaningful and fulfilling to you.  If you aren't able to always do this, use each job you have as a learning experience and stepping-stone.  You will have many bosses in your lifetime who treat you crappy, expect too much, or are just plain mean.  Learn from them how to be an excellent employee and emulate the characteristics that they do not.


3)  Don't waste your time on a broken heart.  What's meant to be, will be.  If it's not meant, it's for a reason.  This is the hardest thing to understand in life, and one of the hardest still to accept.  Know deep down that you are intended to meet the "right" person at the "right" time in your life.  And know, more importantly, that you are strong enough (and special enough) to be alone.


4)  Always do what's right.  Don't follow the crowd just because it's cool.  Be your own leader.  Make your own "cool".


5)  Friends and boyfriends will come and go.  Some will hurt you.  Some will use you.  Some will just fade and drift away with time.  Family is forever (no matter how screwed up or crazy yours may seem)...take the time to get to know your family and its history.  It may not seem important now, but someday, it will be.


6)  FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS!  Whatever you choose to do in life, make sure it is what you want to do.  Don't go to school to be a lawyer because that's what your dad or mom always wanted to be.  If you want to be a nurse, pursue that dream.  If you want to be a writer, work toward that goal.  You will never be happy living out a dream that someone else has created for you.


These are only a few of the lessons I wish I had instilled upon my 17 year old self.  Please feel free to comment on this posting with more of your own lessons.  We all should continue to learn and evolve.


(Sorry for the serious blog...must be the weather...lol).


Closing in on thirty,
Freeway Fairington