What specific career or personal advice would you give your younger self on Jan. 1, 2010 and why?
You know those summer training sessions, after-school workouts and evening basketball practices you go to? Those ones you dread because your teammates and coaches relentlessly make fun of you at any chance they get? And how you occasionally concoct elaborate excuses to miss them just so you can spare yourself some dignity?
Keep going.
Put on a smile. Pretend it’s all right -- that you’re just laughing along with everyone else. Keep showing up and trying to outwork the person next to you.
It’s the only thing that will support you through some incredibly challenging times over the next 10 years.
It will get you through your education at the college you’ll dislike attending. It will provide you extracurricular opportunities, internships and future jobs that you’ve never even envisioned having at this point in your life. It will give you some funds to play around with, as you’ll take on a job in college that will protect you from the allure of blowing money on Friday and Saturday nights trying to impress people you won’t really care for. And it will push you through the overwhelming sadness you’ll feel when you finally set out on your own after college.
You’ll become numb to the cruelties of the world. This will happen because a breakup will leave you emotionally paralyzed for months, and you won’t seek out another relationship for years because you’ll never forget how challenging it was to dig yourself out of it. A few years before that, one of your best friends will tragically lose her life, leaving you to question the ephemerality that defines all of mankind. Friends won’t prove to be as loyal as you are, and it will frustrate you. But you’ll keep showing up for people all the time, even if they don’t do the same for you. Because of all you’ll go through, you’ll understand life is short. That even if it makes people feel uncomfortable, you’ll need to constantly tell your friends how much you love and appreciate them because you never know when they could be taken away from you.
But despite all of this, know that at the end of this decade, you’ll be extremely proud of who you are. You’ll have a job at a really good company where you make podcasts for a living (what’s a podcast?’). You’ll vibe with a good group of friends, some buddies you like hanging with and others who make you an even better version of yourself. You won’t have to worry too much about money because your parents are raising you to appreciate the value of a dollar and to always find the best deal. And most importantly, you’ll have a unique outlook on life, choosing to embrace positivity and love in a world that’s constantly preaching the opposite. You’ll call yourself a minimalist, which you’ve never heard of, and will be damn proud to live more with less. And you’ll be in really good physical shape because of your transformed diet, affinity for walking everywhere, and that one thing which has always fueled you.
Just keep your head down and don’t worry about what other people think. If there’s one thing you’ll ever need to understand, it’s that.
