Adults are constantly warning teens about what they’ll regret. Here, 11 things they probably won’t.
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As adults, we see a lot of what’s scary in the world. We look back at the stupid things we did when we were young and sometimes sit too long in that regret. Like a stupid and beautiful joke, those mistakes become part of what makes us who we are. Of course, some people don’t survive their mistakes or are scarred forever, and so as parents, we can easily get lost in trying to prevent the next generation from taking any risks.
As a result, we spend a lot of time telling teenagers and young adults that they’re bad, that what they’re doing is stupid, and how much they’re going to regret stuff in the future. Maybe it’s that we don’t necessarily understand their culture—and every generation does have a culture of its own—or maybe it’s just the natural order for older folks to worry a whole lot.
But there’s a lot of greatness to being young: the intimacy of friendships, the intensity of love and kisses and cartwheels and connection, the wild and reckless need to explore and expand your experience.
So in an effort to embrace what’s great about being young, I give you eleven things you probably won’t regret when you’re older.
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1. Talking to the person you think you’re too shy to approach.
It doesn’t matter how it works out. Don’t go into it with an agenda, just have a conversation. Step out of the corner, be willing to make the mistake.
2. Standing up for a friend.
Although many schools have strict anti-bullying policies, ending bullying cannot be done without the help of students who are willing to be upstanders.
Not only can intervention stop the bullying, but it shows the bullied kid that somebody believes they are worthy of being treated well.
You will never regret being the person who helped someone feel valued.
3. Being honest.
There are going to be times in your life that it will be super easy to cheat, lie, steal or betray a confidence and you may even get away with it.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of pursuing perfection. Thing is, being who you are won’t take you the wrong places if you’re making healthy choices. If you cheat your way into Harvard, you’re gonna either flunk out there or be miserable wherever you land afterward. Same goes for the rest of life.
You’re not going to regret being honest. You’re not going to regret having done the right thing. As a result, you’ll probably land in a place you’re more comfortable, and more able to be who you are.
4. Being your authentic self, even if others want you to change.
Like cheating on a test, changing things about yourself to suit others is going to make you feel like crap somewhere deep inside. In the long run, even if you’re accepted in because of those changes, you’ll never feel like the people around you are your true friends because it was never really who you were.
You’ll never look back and say to yourself, “Man, I wish I’d changed myself more to make people like me.”
5. Being good to kids, animals, and those smaller than you.
You’ll be amazed what helping little kids can do for your life and your self-esteem. Kids make us feel good about ourselves because they are so appreciative of what we give them. They’ll think you’re cool, and they’ll probably tell you in one way or another. Be a good role model, and you’ll become important in their lives, even for just a day. It’s always good to be reminded that you’re important.
You will never regret kindness, and everyone needs an ally. When you’re in your twenties or thirties, you won’t look back and wish you’d participated when your buddies were shooting birds in their nests for no good reason, or when your girl friends were hitting turtles with their cars. What you’ll remember is helping the lost dog or mentoring the kid who needed a friend.
6. Buying someone coffee.
Every once in a while, pick up the tab. It’s nice, and if you’re cool about it, people will simply appreciate the gesture. You can always say, “You can grab the next round.”
You’ll never regret true generosity. Bonus: Pay for the coffee of a hero in line behind you — a firefighter, cop or member of the armed forces.
Caveat: Don’t become the chump all the cool kids use to buy them stuff. Do it out of generosity, not out of a need to be liked or thanked. Once you start doing stuff to get something in return, you’re being manipulative, not generous.
7. Being good to the earth.
I know, I know, you guys know all about recycling and reducing your carbon footprint. You could probably teach us a few things. But you know you could always do more. Ride-share, stop using disposable cups when you go to Starbucks (bonus, you get 10c back every time you bring in your own cup!), take your own water from home instead of buying one in a plastic bottle from the vending machine.
None of us know what the future of this planet looks like, but when you’re the keepers of this earth, you’ll never regret having done what you could to keep it clean.
8. Learning to play the guitar.
Same applies to the piano, drums or whatever instrument sounds fun. First, not much is hotter than a guy or girl who can play an instrument. Second, you can start a band. Now, as a kid, or later as an adult. Third, if you’re still in school, your parents might pay for your lessons — and trust me, that’ll never happen again in your life. Fourth, learning music can make you smarter
Bonus: When you grow up, you can be a super cool parent, like this dad.
9. Being the most sober person at the party.
This may be super uncool for me to say, but you will never regret being the least drunk kid at the party. Why? Well, consider some of the advantages:
- If the cops show up, you can actually get in your car and drive away without worrying about being arrested or harming someone else.
- If something dangerous is happening at the party – such as a fire risk, too many people on an upstairs balcony, or even a predator who is looking to harm people or steal from them, you will be able to assess that danger and react to it in order to better protect yourself and others.
- You can decide for yourself who’s sober enough to drive you home. When you’re buzzed, it’s harder to tell who’s too wasted to drive. This is for your protection and others’. Take your friends’ keys if they’re too drunk to drive. You’ll never regret having intervened, but you may regret doing nothing if someone is hurt or killed.
- You don’t have to worry as much about doing something stupid that others will undoubtedly capture on their phones and put on the Internet for eternity.
- If you do end up hooking up with someone, you’ll be better able to assess your partner’s enthusiastic consent. Is he or she really into it, or are they just too buzzed to care? If you’re buzzed too, you might not make a great decision about moving forward with the hookup. If you’re sober, you’ll know the person is really into you.
Another bonus: Drunk lovers generally make crappy lovers, and wouldn’t you rather really, really blow your partner’s mind with your responsiveness and skills?
I promise you, you’ll probably never look back and say, “Man, I wish I’d been more drunk that night!” but we’ve all heard the opposite a billion times. Even more importantly, you never ever want to wonder whether you had full consent from your partner – after all, sex without consent is rape.
Caveat: Just because you’re sober doesn’t mean everyone around you can take advantage of you and get drunk as skunks with the expectation that you’ll take care of them. Follow your gut here – being an upstander, helping others, and preventing disaster are important, but if you’re the only one doing it over and over and over, you may be enabling irresponsible or dangerous behavior. Take yourself out of that situation. After all, only jerks take advantage of others like that, and wouldn’t you rather have friends whom you know you can rely upon, too?
10. Intervening when a friend is about to take advantage of someone who is drunk or high.
This one you may not have heard as often, but it’s just as important.
You’ve probably seen it before: You’re at a party and there’s one drunk girl on the couch who seems really out of it. A guy goes over to her and starts chatting her up. Maybe he has great intentions, maybe he has bad intentions. Regardless of whether you’re a guy or a girl, you won’t regret keeping an eye on that situation to possibly help prevent someone from being raped. We all know “friends don’t let friends drive drunk”, well it’s also true that friends don’t let friends commit rape.
Caveat: New evidence suggests that men and boys are raped more often than we have ever understood, and it’s important that guys and girls stand up for the men in their lives too. There are a lot of stories of guys who’ve been drunk or otherwise incapacitated being raped by women or men, and those guys deserve to be protected as well.
11. Doing something dangerous safely.
This means skydiving, snowboarding, kite surfing, zip-lining, skating, cliff-diving, rock climbing, surfing or whatever other well-tested and reputable means of professionally-supervised adrenaline-inducing activities you might enjoy. You won’t regret taking well-calculated risks, and trust the old folks—as you get older, you’ll probably be less likely to do this awesome stuff.
Hat tip to Marc and Angel for inspiring this list with their fantastic post 10 Things You Will Regret in 10 Years
…and my friends Henry Cherry and Jarad Dewing for helping with this list.
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What’s your take on what you just read? Comment below or write a response and submit to us your own point of view or reaction here at our submissions portal.
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Photo credits:
Lead photo: Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash
Photo in courtesy of author.
I loved this, Thank You
A sensible and difficult to contradict list. However number nine seems like it’s on the wrong list. The other items listed speak of being a kind, generous, mindful person … oh (#9), and don’t get wasted. I’m not saying it isn’t good advice, just perhaps misplaced this one time. And breaking it down further, what does it say about western society when the first reason for not doing number nine is: so that you can run away from the police?
Ha! Well, this advice was concocted with my buddies, and I will never forget one party we were all at in high school out in a very woodsy area of my hometown in Michigan. My friends in that photo were Straight Edge at the time (no booze, no drugs, no religion, etc) and I just wasn’t a big drinker. One time we were leaving a party – I think I was with those guys – just as it was being busted up and we were laughing because we were thinking, “I dare you to pull us over!” which was a… Read more »
To be old and wise, you must be young and stupid first.
Then again, under that logic, I must be REALLY wise.
Fantastic. Probably my favourite article I’ve ever read on this site. And as a teetotaller all my life (whose non-drinking was very super uncool to my teenage peers) no.9 was a sight for sore eyes. Well done.
Thanks Jamie!
Thank you for including the comment on Consent in #9. I work with boys in a variety of middle and high schools – all of them are surprised to find out that law states a drunk person cannot legally give their consent for sexual activity (Crimes Act 1964 – Section 128A, 4). Having sex with someone who is drunk without having their consent when they were sober is rape as a drunk person cannot legally give their consent. Staying sober at a party can keep you from making this mistake and allow you to watch out for your friends who… Read more »
FYI: Laws are different in different states in the US and different countries.
To expand on your point on being sober: you can also listen and watch other people be absolutely ridiculous (assuming what they’re saying or doing is safe and not discriminate, rude, dangerous, etc).
#11 — A safe dangerous thing is an oxymoron. It’s one or the other. If it is “fake” dangerous, I can’t help thinking that you will regret deceiving yourself later. If there is a real element of danger — well, taking unnecessary risks is a pretty good definition for “folly.” Under no circumstances can it ever be justified. You won’t be free of regret eleven years later if you’ve hurt yourself badly doing something that is essentially pointless.
A safe dangerous thing is an oxymoron. “Doing something dangerous safely” is not. “Dangerous” is an adjective to the noun. “Safely”, an adverb, modifies the action, the way you do the thing. Something dangerous is the thing. Safely refers to you, the person doing it.
H, I love you! Thanks for that!
Would this be too “square” to share with all my nephews at Thanksgiving? [Turning on the printer!]
Of course not!!
It’s not very square!
They will act like it is very square, but secretly remember it and feel good that you were thinking about/looking out for them. Share it!
Good list! Especially about doing the dangerous stuff safely! Also, you could number 5 and 10 by being vegetarian. And your health will thank you in 11 years!
Your health will thank you for being vegetarian if you compare it with the results of eating every day at McDonald’s or continually gorging on inch-thick steaks. Otherwise, no. The only rational basis for not eating meat is that you don’t like the taste — tastes are beyond argument. All other objections are either spurious or they are objections not to eating meat, but to the environmental consequences of the way meat is presently produced.