[foryoursplendor]

Its so easy to forget what its like to be a teenager, so keep a diary. You can read it later to remember all the fun things you did and how silly you were. Also keep letters from friends, so you can show them when they're older.

Embracing geekiness=very important!!!!!

[Persiflager]

The more you embrace your geekiness, the more people will think you're cool.

Almost everything you'll read in magazines will be tosh.

If your hair is long enough to tie back in a ponytail, it's too long and doesn't suit you. Get it cut!

[vixen_within]

Maintain a savings account
Talk to strangers
Question authority

[persimmon_grrrl]

there is plenty of time to be an adult. enjoy being a child. it is very fleeting, and most adults spend the rest of their lives seeking their younger, more vibrant, not even more pure, but more honest, more present selves.

thanks, vixen within.

[vixen_within]

solid gold persimmon_grrrl

[persimmon_grrrl]

you can always get back to whatever you think you lost.

you didn't lose it, you just hid it from yourself.

[zoya]

..that you're neither too little or too much, and you don't have to prove yourself to anyone.

[bunnyb]

that you are not defined by your mistakes.

that you can live happily ever after.

to not over-think things.

[Peaches Lulu]

I'd add:

Always fall in love with yourself. A fast glance in a mirror or a long slow mental embrace is mighty medicine sometimes.

Become who you wanted to be when you were ten. It's all still there.

[tesao]

take risks.

it's ok to fail. that's how you learn things.

you ARE worth loving. no matter what anyone says.

you DON'T have to be like everyone else. in fact, it may be better to be different.

[crazyoldcatlady]

...that nothing is genuinely black and white. there's always grey.

[zoya]

... to not ignore your gut. Your intuition is always right. To keep listening to your intuition so you become more confident as time goes on that what it's telling you is correct. And to follow what it's telling you.


That there are 3 kinds of people in life: Those who ignore what their gut is telling them, those who hear it but are too afraid to follow it, and those who go with their gut. That if you ask the people you admire how they got where they are (whether it's emotionally, job wise, health, etc) and at some point they'll always say they just followed their gut, even though it might have been against the grain.


That it's better to have tried than to wonder how it would have turned out if you did.

[freckleface7]

... to take a good long objective look at your future in-laws & their relationship before you marry bc think it or not, it WILL affect your marriage.

.. that near midway through your life you will probably do a total self-analysis & feel every bit as neurotic at 30+ as you did at 13 all over again, proving the more things change, the more they stay the same.

[crazyoldcatlady]

....that you're allowed to change your mind.

[persimmon_grrrl]

Those are great ones Persimmon Grrrl.

Thanks!

I totally forgot about this thread; I'm glad it was bumped up again.

I heart all the girls growing up right now. It's hard, and I have your backs.

[tesao]

wow. lots of good ones in here lately! bunny be mine, dolor, queen bull, persimmon, polly, lustfullypink....oh, hell, everyone! everything that everyone has said i wish i'd known sooner!!

here's some more:

think VERY long and hard before you say something hurtful. once those words are said, you can never take them back. and as girl trouble says, what you do *will* come back and bite you on the butt.

as long as you think you are green, you will grow. it's when you think that you are ripe that you begin to get rotten.

start saving money NOW.

smile. it confuses your enemies.

it is better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

it's okay to ask questions. how else will you learn?

tell the people that you love that you love them. every chance you get. you may not get another chance to.

saving yourself for marriage may be a crock, but it certainly helps you get better at blow jobs!

[freckleface7]

queen bull, I think that goes hand in hand w/ what dolor had written last month.. that for some people, being unhappy or broken is just what feels most natural to them on their deepest level.

to me what I have just started realising as I creep closer to the high end of my 30's, is that eventually, you need to deal w/ the ugly stuff of your past and really actually Mean It. talking about it in the vague abstract is only pretending and another form of running from it.
I wish I had known back then that someday it would be ok to talk about it and realised it was never. my. fault.


every day really Is a new chance at being better.

[Queen Bull]

The hardest thing that I have learned in my short short time here, and ladies, PLEASE correct me if Im wrong or if this needs amending, is that people who dont want to be 'fixed', wont be. And that no amount of love and support will change that while they sit in their sorry hole.

and that in order to have vices, you have to be ashamed of what it is you are doing in the first place. But we can thank Misters Wilde and Grey for that.

[LustfullyPink]

That everything is fixable/cleanable/replaceable.

Except people.

[Kpasa]

I wish I would have known that no one really cares about your embarrassing moments as much as you think they do, and those incidents are often forgotten in everyone's mind but yours.

I wish I would have gotten my driver's license sooner, and known that I wouldn't have to parallel park on the driving test.