18 Things to Tell 18 Year Old Me

Wow! <--I like that word. Lets start with over the weekend, I went to play volleyball with three other Madisonians. One of them was surprised of how old I really am and how I look. Age conversations can be controversial sometimes, and sometimes not. Generally when people find out I look nothing like my age (with and without makeup), they ask what my trick is. I really thought about it. It was a lot of water and not a lot of alcoholic consumption, junk food, and soda. ... and no kids :D I would probably look even younger if I wasn't in a relationship, teehee! Lets get to the point.

In many of our long car drives, Josh asked me, "If you could be one age forever, what would it be?" I immediately said 28. When I was 18, I knew that being 28 was the oldest I would allow myself to get my life together to get ready for my 30's. Seeing my married sisters, one at 18 and one at 24, it wasn't the timeline I wanted. I want to be clear that there is no one way road in life and life can happen in any order to anyone at anytime. Just because someone's journey is different from mine, doesn't make them less or more than me; to each their own.

One was married at 18, had kids, and she worked then finally went back to school, and now has her bachelors. The other married the semester before her college graduation and had kids. There is absolutely nothing wrong with their timelines, but I feel like when you marry and have kids, you don't have as much "me" time. It felt like they were both sent away right after their schooling. I didn't want that. Before I even started college, I made it a goal to live with my parents two years after graduation because I knew I would venture out. My two years at home was "my way" of paying time, costs, and labor to my parents, which does not measure to all they've given me.

Why 28? Because we spend our first 18 years in school and work, then we spend 4-5 years in college or work, and then we finally have 4+ years to have to ourselves or work before we commit to other people beyond ourselves. Lets get these 18 advices going:

1. You'll be old enough to meet the age 25+ for rental and car insurance discounts. 
2. By that time, you'll already be done with your bachelors and maybe even masters, and all you have to do is work, work, work, work, work. 
3. You've had just enough time to explore not just physical places, but also mentally. You know yourself and what you're willing to tolerate.
4. You've had your fair share of parties, drinking, meeting new people, and determining who gets to be with you on the next couple of years in your life. These people are going to bring you down or help you grow. 
5. If you landed a job right after college, you would've had a 2+ year work history with them to use as your income for a mortgage loan.
6. Lots of credit cards and high credit lines :D - hopefully you're also responsible with paying them off too.
7. You have your own car, and maybe even paid off. Being able to drive anywhere is like a free bird.
8. You've learned to love yourself and this allows you to understand how to love others and also understand when others don't love you.
9. You've traveled atleast 2+ times outside of the country
10. Reserving hotels or cars is nothing new, and you're in a rewards program that gives you free nights to stay.
11. You'll live on your own for a while and realize rent sucks and it makes you want to quit working because you're just working to pay rent at a place you're barely at.
12. Maybe you might regret going to college, but at least it's something you can still feel good about when you feel like such a failure.
13. Sometimes the best time is just staying in. 
14. Maybe you'll be married and have kids, so just enjoy all the time you have to yourself before hitting 28.
15. It takes a lot of drive and motivation once you're 28 because people have burned you out or the government sucks, but don't let that stop your positivity and imagination.
16. Keep dreaming. I know, having too many dreams is bad, but I think you would hurt more if you didn't have enough goals to aim.
17. If you're going to start a youtube channel, start early and you won't have to work as hard to get subscribers.
18. Start saving to pay for your education or a house down payment.