Current Events > Adults of CE, what advice can you give a teenager about becoming an adult?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm in my mid teens, and I'm nearing the time where I should start looking for a job and figuring out a plan for my early adult life.

I feel kinda overwhelmed trying to figure it out on my own, sometimes I feel like the world is too much for me to handle. It's a scary feeling.

I want to hear anything you can tell me, any advice, tips, life stories and experiences, etc. I'm here to listen.
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Get a drivers license and get an entry-level retail or fast food job as soon as possible. Save as much as you can, building up reserves of money will help you exponentially early on.

Then start taking classes at a community college but use FAFSA or whatever your country's equivalent of financial aid is so you pay as little as possible. The goal is continue to explore, but don't commit to any career path with long-term debt and loans until you're absolutely certain; what you want to do in life will likely change from drastically from the age of 18-22. Be picky about colleges, you only get to choose one so you might as well get the best experience you can find

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• Dont let anyone else push you onto a path you dont want for yourself
• Get your own place, with your own room as soon as you can safely pay for it, and find roommates that you feel like you can get along with, as well as ones that seem responsible enough to clean up after themselves and pay rent
• Dont feel pressured into staying in a relationship or a job; youve got plenty of time for self exploration and discovering the person you want to be.
• Independence is freeing, keep a budget and dont live outside of your means unless you have a plan to pay yourself back down the road

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• Don't rent if possible. If you can, stay with your parents until you can put a down payment on a house.
• Go to an accredited community college and pay out of pocket. Your credits will transfer to University. This is basically ~2 years worth of $50k/yr University credits for like $4k a year instead.
• Work experience matters more than education. If you can't find a job, volunteer. Doing something while not getting paid is in fact better than doing nothing and not getting paid.
• Carry a flashlight everywhere you go.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

* Don't rent if possible. If you can, stay with your parents until you can put a down payment on a house.

TCs parents are kinda overbearing with her so idk if she wants to go that route.

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The advice I give to my teenage kid is to not become like me. Stay in school and stay sober.

Booze and drugs will consume you if you let it.
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Save money early and save often. While youre young and have fewer commitments and more energy, you should work extra hard. The more you do this the sooner you can become independent.

But also dont follow the life plans of others. If youre happy and relatively financially secure, then dont feel like you need to get married or have kids or work somewhere that you hate. Do what feels right while making sure you have the means to survive. Dont be afraid to switch careers even if people say that youre too old.

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at this point, you solely are responsible for your own future.

do informational interviews of any job that interests you. Many of them are a lot different than youve been lead to believe; most engineers arent sitting around doing math all day, for instance.

choosing your college, mix the experience with low cost. Go to a good in-state school unless youve got money or lots of good scholarships.

ask out lots of girls in HS for practice so youre a player in college.

Start an exercise regime now and keep it for life.

start eating healthy now, if you havent already.

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prepare to be disappointed... oh, and enjoy the mess.

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don't fuck up in school... least of all if you don't know what you wanna do later in life.

it's weird to think that something you do as a teen can still have a profound effect in your adult life like finally chasing a degree you know you want but your initial grades in HS are nowhere near good enough because of #yolo during said period of your life.

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Pus_N_Pecans posted...

* Dont let anyone else push you onto a path you dont want for yourself

This one is important. For instance if family members are pushing you towards work/education which doesn't fit your temperament it can be very difficult to accept that their judgement is not necessarily correct.
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"high school was hard just wait for college. College was hard lol just wait for working. X was hard just wait..."

Bullshit. It's all complete bullshit. Life gets easier and better every year. You make more money, you're smarter and stronger and you'll find beautiful women who love you for you.

Just flow with life and it's ok to fail and move back in with the parents and try again

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-go away for college instead of commuting to school. The experience is important for your resume and its good to save as much cash as possible
-get as many jobs and internships as possible before graduating college
-Decide what you really want to do with your life now so you can waste as little time as possible achieving your goals. Pursuing things that you dont actually care about is a bad idea
-after college find your own apartment or studio as soon as you can afford it
-make some memories

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jeffhardyb0yz posted...

Ok ok youve drowned TC in all the serious, logistical stuff, now can you guys give advice as to actually have some fun in life. Jesus lol

Adulting isn't fun.

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Absolutely do not get life advice from gamefaqs.gamespot.com

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I've found life largely rewards effort more than talent. As a smart kid who never really had to work hard to succeed in school or music during my youth, that became a hard obstacle to overcome.


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LumaRosalina posted...

nearing the time where I should start looking for a job and figuring out a plan for my early adult life.

nahhhh. Work hard at whatever you do, but you don't need a big plan like that

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Dont think you can wait for things to fall in place for you

You have to grasp opportunities and forge your own future

Dont be lazy and say you can worry tomorrow, next month, next year. Do it now, spend less time on games and actually think and plan your future.

Dont be scared of failing. You miss 100% of shots you dont take.

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Imagine going to random NEETs on CE and not the intellectuals on Bot's Domain for advice.

Smfh
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Balrog0 posted...

Absolutely do not get life advice from gamefaqs.gamespot.com

or just get off gamefaqs.gamespot.com altogether.

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Financial literacy. Learned this in my late 20's a high paying job means nothing if you dont know or understand how to manage your money.

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The time you have now won't come again. You only get to be young, free, and healthy once. Right now--or in a couple of years from now depending on where you live and exactly how old you are--is the time to figure out what you want in life. Adult life is sort of laid out like this: high school -> college or trade school -> career -> additional training if you need it. If you skip out on getting a degree in something you want and can use to start a career, it's much harder being a non-traditional student than you might think. If you need a college or trade school to follow the path you want for yourself, head straight for it. People who put it off tend to fall right off the wagon and don't get back on.

Get a part time job if you can to build experience. Keep working through college or trade school if you can, but prioritize your education and professional development. Don't compare yourself to other people. If your friend from chemistry can work three part time jobs and take a full load of credits, good for him. If you can't, that's fine. You do what you need to do to succeed and build a future for yourself. If you fail at something, that only means something needs to change. It absolutely doesn't mean you are a failure.

Don't ever let other people control or take advantage of you. You, LumaRosalina, deserve to be happy and free and live your own life. I hope you have a family that is good to you, but if you don't, make sure you graduate from high school with a complete enough set of life skills that you can stand on your own two feet without help. Don't let your parents decide your life path. Watch out for abusive people. There are things that can be wrong with people--like narcissistic personality disorder or psychopathy--that can create an incredible environment for abuse if they have wormed themselves into your life and target you. It's not their fault that they are like that, but it isn't your fault either, or your responsibility.

That last thing is a rare problem, but I've seen it happen three times in my life, and my life would have been so much happier if someone had bothered to warn me that dangerous people can come in some unusual packaging.

Im a high school teacher. The number one advice I give to my students, and especially my seniors...is enjoy post high school life as much as possible. Especially college. Everyone thinks theyll miss high school, but I promise the best years of your life will be after HS is done.

Enjoy having little responsibility while you can. Real life sucks. Commitments suck. Being tied to a job with no freedom sucks. College will be the best years of your life most likely, so dont try and be TOO busy.

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DoctorPiranha3 posted...

Imagine going to random NEETs on CE and not the intellectuals on Bot's Domain for advice.

Smfh

fuck
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Pretty much no adult knows what they are doing. A big part of adulthood is pretty much about becoming comfortable with that.

So, all in all, don't be so down on yourself for feeling uncertain about things, everyone does.

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Thanks for all the replies everyone, I appreciate it a lot.
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DoctorPiranha3 posted...

Imagine going to random NEETs on CE and not the intellectuals on Bot's Domain for advice.

Smfh

What does that make you then Proto, youre posting here lol

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Alpha218 posted...

What does that make you then Proto, youre posting here lol

I am obviously not part of the normal CE crowd.
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Take everything one day at a time, dont worry about the past and dont stress about the future.

Too many people are stressing themselves insane over stuff that happened 5 years ago, or theyre driving their self crazy over something that might or might not happen a year from now. Its all pointless and does nothing but create unnecessary stress and bad moments.

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If you've ever thought life sucks, it only gets worse.

COVxy posted...

Pretty much no adult knows what they are doing. A big part of adulthood is pretty much about becoming comfortable with that.

So, all in all, don't be so down on yourself for feeling uncertain about things, everyone does.

I also like this answer.

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DoctorPiranha3 posted...

I am obviously not part of the normal CE crowd.

Bruh, I see you post here often enough

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Alpha218 posted...

Bruh, I see you post here often enough

Doesn't mean I am a CE caricature.
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Nothing you do in highschool matters.

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It's not about what you know or who you know, it's about who knows you.


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Pus_N_Pecans posted...

Get your own place, with your own room as soon as you can safely pay for it, and find roommates that you feel like you can get along with, as well as ones that seem responsible enough to clean up after themselves and pay rent
Dont feel pressured into staying in a relationship or a job; youve got plenty of time for self exploration and discovering the person you want to be.

Just so you know, these conflict heavily. The point of living with your parents is to reduce your cost of living. The lower your expenses, the less obligated you have to meet those expenses, the more freedom you have to choose to do what you want. If you're stuck in a job you hate, having rent looming over your head going to give you endless excuses to stay and be miserable and waste years of your life. I'm partially in the situation now but I cope as my paycheques fund more lucrative opportunities for me and I have a lot of time on my hands to commit to my hobbies.

My 2 cents:

Part of the process of learning is being an idiot and trying new things. I'm sure everyone has heard about that one guy who they believe is dumb as rocks and they come and find out that one guy is super successful and now they want to do the same thing he's doing. The reason why he got ahead is because he tried. You don't need to know everything about a subject to succeed in it, you just need to know how to get the answers the questions you have about it. To do this, it generally requires you to look like you're dumb as rocks and ask the questions in the first place. So learn humility and be willing to look like an idiot. It'll pay off.

This requires legitimate ambition or, somewhat, desperation, but I would recommend learning to invest. You don't need thousands of dollars starting out, even $20 will do, especially in the crypto world. When you learn to invest, you're exposing yourself to the frontlines of innovation in technology, you'll learn about the history of money and you'll understand the dynamics of how these countries interact, and why we go into war.


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Dont get in a huge conflict with your parents over pointless shit like arguing over something like smoking Mary Jane or marrying somebody when youre freaking late teens. Having your parents around as financial/logic resources in your early-mid 20s is a big game changer.

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COVxy posted...

Pretty much no adult knows what they are doing. A big part of adulthood is pretty much about becoming comfortable with that.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


And to add on to this, when they mean no adult knows what they're doing, this applies to everyone. Even experts and authorities. This is something most people in general have a very hard time accepting, where they look to someone with status expecting them to have all the answers when it just isn't so. This isn't to say they know nothing, just don't take their words as the holy grail and their words should be up to scrutiny as much as anyone else's. What can move their words up above the others is that they can back up their ideas with their wealth of knowledge.

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Avoid porn.

Avoid social media

Get the fuck off of gamefaqs and reddit

no matter how bleak things can look or how hard you fail, dont ever give up. dont ruminate on negative circumstances make a plan and keep moving forward

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Hmm, let me try my hand at this...

1) You're you, and you know yourself better than anyone else does., so be honest with yourself, even if it hurts.

2) Don't let problems fester: acknowledge them, analyze them, discuss them, find a solution.

3) Money is important, but it's a means to an end. Our society requires that you have money to do fun things. Don't let pursuit of riches define you though: only evil and misery lie down that path.

4) Speaking of money: college is completely, unreasonably expensive. Unless your parents are rich, you're going to graduate in debt. So don't rush into it, look into starting at a community college, that kind of thing. If you work hard, stay focused, and get good grades, you can save yourself a lot of financial pain later on, and maybe even go to your dream school, even if it's just for two years instead of four.

5) Happiness is worth a hell of a lot.

6) Make sure to leave your comfort zone. You don't have to do it all the time, but you should do it. It's how you grow. Travel if you can. Try new things, eat food that seems weird, never let life become stale.

7) Don't worry too much about what others think. Again, you're you, and while you should listen to advice and concerns from others and consider it, at the end of the day, you're the boss. You'll always be able to find people who support you.

8) You're probably not the next big star or great artist or athlete or whatever. Don't give that up right away, but be mindful that that's probably not going to happen.

I actually think theres a surprising amount of good advice in here; even if they all sort of branch off in different ways, most of it is pretty sound depending on what areas you place value on.

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It's not the face that you fuck...

..it's the fuck that you face.

Think on that one for a few.

lol a lot of "I peaked in high school life is all downhill" advice here

You're not "only young and healthy" in high school give me a fuckin break. If you don't exercise and turn into a netflix zombie I guess. The best runners in the world are all around 40

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