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Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, nevermind. You will not understand the power and
beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 (or 30) years, you'll look back at photos
of yourself, and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you, and how
fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an
algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at four PM on some idle tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.
The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember compliments you recieve, forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you dont know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people
I know didn't know at twenty-two what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most
interesting fourty year olds I know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll divorce at fourty, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your
seventy-fifth wedding annivesary.
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either,
your choices are half chance. So are everybody elses.
Enjoy your body. Use it everyway you can, don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it.
Its the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but in your living-room.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings.
They're your best link to your past, and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you
need the people who you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.
Live in Northern California once, but, leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia.
Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts
and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen.
Good advice. Trust is a thing we must only become. We know not ourselves, or our own situations,
but only those things which befall us, or become readily apparent. Really, we must keep to our own
business, and in the end, we must trust those we love.
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stolen, but not yet taken.