thursday thirteen

Inspired by Wicked Witch, today’s post is one about a decade of hindsight:

If you could go back 10 years, what 13 things that you know now would you tell yourself then? Boy howdy!

Here goes:

1. Stop obsessing about everyone else. Focus on fixing your own shit.

2. Your family seems completely insane right now, true, but hang in there – even seemingly impossible problems seem to work themselves out. You’re going to be pleasantly surprised at how healthy the family dynamic can become. And, you’re stuck with them anyway.

3. You are more attractive than you think you are. Stop taking yourself off the relationship market because you presume all the men out there will think you are too fat, too tall, too whatever. Men can be scary, but they can also be lovely people. If they are going to reject you, fine – but let them do it, don’t do it for them. (Besides, you are smart, nice, thoughtful, generous and funny. These are valuable things.)

4. Go digital – I know, I know, you have tons of film camera equipment, but one day you are gonna wish you switched over sooner.

5. Spend as much time as possible with your Grandmother. She won’t be around much longer. And she’s such a cool person.

6. Ditto your Dad. And ditto – surprise! – your little sister. The deaths of these two will seriously fuck you up for a while, but you will get over it, and you will be OK.

7. Try not to get engaged to your gorgeous, passionate, strong, but seriously damaged boyfriend. You can’t cure him, no amount of love from you will fix him, and he is in self-destruct mode. Staying with him is like clinging to a slowly sinking ship in icy waters. It’s gonna be a long, cold, unpleasant ride. And in the end – when it’s truly desperate – you're gonna let go to save yourself. And then wonder why the hell it took you so long.

8. Your hair is never going to be straight. Stop torturing it. It’s fine just the way it is.

9. Do take that job at the internet start up – don’t worry to much about whether it’s too soon to leave the law firm. It’s fine.

10. And when your stock is worth a million dollars, SELL IT. And even if you don’t manage to do that, put a buck or two of your regular salary into a savings account. And please pay your bills on time – those seemingly unimportant late payments can bite you in the ass when you want to buy your first house.

11. You work too hard. Exercise. Relax. Smell the flowers. Try to have some balance in your life. You’ll get there eventually, but it would be nice to start sooner.

12. Keep a journal. 10 years from now you are gonna have a moment of reflection and –believe it or not – you are going to have a hard time remembering what was happening at the end of 1996.

13. One day, this thing you keep hearing about called the Internet will be used by practically everyone. And there will even be something called blogging – web logging – by which you can journal online. Imagine that!