what do you wish you did when you were 18?

Brought earplugs to the Slayer/Slipknot/Mastodon/MachineHead concert…

58

haha only now am I learning to maybe throw some earpugls in every once in a while

8
- That concert was so brutal in terms of sound level. I was in the pit and people were using cigarette filters as earplugs. That’s how loud it was. I’m pretty sure that’s why I have mild tinnitus now.
  
  15
I don't understand how people can go to music shows without ear plugs. I don't even attend metal music, which seem to crank it up to the point of losing sound quality, just for the sake of "bad assery" I guess.

I feel bad for kids being brought to concerts without them, too.

6

Bought Apple and Microsoft stock.

41

And google

6
- There was no Google when I was 18. Jesus if I had somehow been able to buy Microsoft and Apple ... But at the time Apple wasn't looking too good.
  
  9
Bought Bitcoin you mean?

-14
- I think you're incorrectly assuming their age
  
  17

Transitioned

34

Same, I waited till I was 27, I'm happy I'm finally there, but it woulda been nice to start 10 years earlier, woulda been a lot better for me mentally especially.

9
I'm glad you figured yourself out. I waited until I was 22 to come out of the closet and until I was in my 30s to dress how I wanted (I didn't transition, but I do identify as non-comforming and wear clothing that isn't standard for my gender). It's extremely comfortable being who you are.

2
Huge mood

1

Said no to my parents more.

24

Less fucking about, more fucking

22

(1) work out, (2) ditch an extremely toxic relationship without ever looking back, (3) have more fun, (4) buy aapl.

21

Warn my boyfriend he had a brain tumor while still possible to treat

20

Stuff that would theoretically have been possible, in no particular order:

develop better study & time management skills so college doesn’t kick my ass nearly so badly
walk on to the college’s cross country team. After all, it was a D3 school, they’ll take just about anyone. Would’ve been a great way to avoid putting on 60 pounds in school.
spend more time taking advantage of the free therapy sessions in the student health center and maybe God forbid not fall as far into the pit of depression

20

All of this. Wish I had applied myself and found someone to tell me constant criticism for making mistakes isn't normal.

2

Bought Bitcoin or have tried to buy a shoebox of a house.

But I listened to all the "sensible" people and went for a graduate level program instead like an idiot, and then couldn't do anything with it for a litany of reasons. Just one family emergency or health problem after another.

The worst of all maybe could have been avoided if I hadn't been off at school in the first place. I don't regret college, but my education should have stopped there. I was finally an adult, but I still let everyone else dictate my life, right from the getgo.

Biggest regret of my life, right out of the gate.

17

But I listened to all the “sensible” people and went for a graduate level program instead like an idiot

Oof, yeah similar situation though for me it was more around 20-21. Went to college for about 2-3 years, wasn't doing too great with the required calculus classes & sort of dropped out. The upside was during that same time I landed a full time job in IT & was getting paid plenty, had a 401k, all that stuff.

But the "sensible" people around me (aka the boomer parents/uncles/etc. with their lifetime pensions) kept telling me to stop working & go back to school. That got into my head & eventually I quit my well paid job, burned another 2-3 years on school before realizing that just wasn't going to work out for me. Then cashed out my 401k to pay off those school loans.. those same "sensible" people didn't tell me anything about retirement savings & I was too young & dumb to understand that stuff back then.

Nowadays I'm okay & don't have any debt. But all that essentially meant I started over with my career later in life & am still trying to catch up with retirement savings.

8
In an alternate timeline I totally should have bought bitcoin when it was memed on and was literally sub pennies. On the other hand, anyone I know with wallets that old either have lost access to them or spent them when they went to a few dollars so likely wouldn't be any different

2

Gave a shit about school. Instead I was way too worried about finding that one girl for me. Now I’m dumb, poor, and have the most wonderful wife in the world… after a few false starts.

17

Wish I had gotten diagnosed with adhd. Earlier would have been better, but really it was college and early 20s where it hurt me the most (ie the period of time where I no longer had my parents managing my calendar, and before my wife and I started divvying up personal and household tasks based on our strengths)

15

This hits hard. I was 29. My daughter was 3 and my god, I wish I was diagnosed earlier. After that it still took me several years to get a hold of my life.

3

Kept in touch with friends.

Got back on ADHD meds that my parents took me off as a 10yo as they didn't like the side effects.

Exercised.

Study, get the certification I ended up getting eventually (that i was repeatedly recommended to do but was too perpetually exhausted to study for), and breaking into IT as a career sooner.

Not waste years 18-22 in a shitty grocery store/fast food job. To this day I can't stand to look at a rotisserie chicken cooker.

14

I wish I would have taken relationships less seriously. I started dating people when I was young because I thought it was what everyone was doing but I should have been having fun and goofing around.

Investing in Bitcoin, I suppose, is the other thing. I nearly did it when people were paying multiple Bitcoins for a pizza for the novelty of it but stopped because I couldn't figure it out at the time.

14

Go to a therapy

14

Highly recommend

3
- but just one, two therapys or three can cause sunburn
  
  3

Hit the gym brother. Instead of starting my work out journey now in my 30s.

I was fortunate enough to have had a fast metabolism through out my 20s but starting a workout habit earlier would've helped maintain it better.

14

Yeah i did this then injured myself at 24and spent the last 6 years out of the gym.

I'm back in now and i am making great progress from previous experience and muscle memory.

Its not as easy now but i cant imagine starting from nothing at all now.

Good luck with your journey though.

Every day you go to the gym is a little closer to improving and the days you dont want to do it and still do are the days you make the most gains.

1
- Wow, 6 years. What was your injury?
  
  2

Skipped years of college that didn’t do me any good and just moved out instead of living with my family for another 4 years.

13

Worry less about grades and academic performance, met my actual therapist back then so I could understand more about myself through exploration of my own self.

Hug my dad more if I knew he would be gone in a few years. Miss him everyday.

12

I wish I would have came out of the closet immediately instead of being in two marriages that really sucked because I was confused about what I wanted and I didn’t want to ostracize myself from my family and peers.

Fuck, that felt good to get out

11

Stop trying so hard to get laid. I could have had better relationships if I'd just stopped making that my goal.

But those teenage boy hormones hit hard and that's literally all I could think about back then.

10

I would have got laid so much more if I wasn't trying so hard to get laid.

3

My drivers license. Now I'm 19 and still need to do it.

10

4
- I'm going to finish school soon and I want to drive a car when I have a job and can afford it. I've used public transportation for the past 3 years and will probably still use it in the future when it's not too inconvenient but a 30 min drive to work taking 1 hour instead, where I spend 30 minutes just waiting, sucks. This weekend I drove to a friend. It would have taken 30 minutes by car but it took me 2 hours with public transport because I had to wait a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes. The issue isn't public transportation itself but that the government was trying to save as much money as possible and it is getting better with the new government but there is still so much to do and it will take time.
  
  4
The sooner the better. I know people in their 30s at my work that can't drive and just Uber to work every day. Don't become that guy

2
- I don't have a driver's license, but I have made lifestyle choices so I can walk, bike, and take transit to most of my destinations. There is the odd destination where I'll use ride hailing, but I avoid it.
  
  2

Had more sex and opposed my parents making me do so much religious junk with my time.

10

Get tested and subsequently treated for ADHD.
Dump the ex I was dating around that time instead of letting her take up two years of my life that I wont get back.
Pay more attention to the people that actually put effort into their friendship/relationship with me and drop the ones that didn't.
Work out more and eat better.
Socialize as much as I could while living in the dorms.
Either join or create study groups.

10

Noticed how many people were interested in me. Could have had a lot more connections had I nurtured them when I had the chance. Now that i'm a grown ass man and it's really kicking me in the ass just how hard it is to even meet people, nonetheless make a connection.

The only phone number I ended up getting was my manager (when I resigned) I didn't even realize they liked me until years later and I'm not even entirely sure that the number is still theirs and even if it were they've long ago moved and it wouldn't even be a good idea anyway.

Moral of the story if anyone gives you the time of day do the bare minimum of getting a contact so that you can catch up with them later.

8

Tried dancing with that girl at the prom who actually wanted to dance with me. Yeah the music was loud, but I should have tried anyway. (Even not knowing how.)

Eventually I learned better how to talk/interact with women and even married a great one, but I do wonder how my life would be different if I had earlier what little skill I have now.

8

Not wasted all the time and actually studied. I am pretty good even at procrastinating starting things I like doing.

Also, when I was 17 one of the better colleges had a yearly competition in networking (specifically with Cisco devices) where people who scored above 56% would get some larger amount of bonus points at that college. Unfortunately, the number of places was limited, so I didn't want to take anyone's opportunity away by signing up, as I wasn't 100% sure I could do it.
In the end, 14 people who signed up didn't even show up. Fuck that!

Perhaps I could try when it will be held next year. Yeah, future tense. I am still 17. But it's still the same morale problem. Limited number of opportunities. Not everyone can get the chance, perhaps because of me.
I don't know what to do.
I am not even sure I regret the choice I made. On one hand, I lost an opportunity myself. On the other hand, it feels like I made a right, albeit dumb decision.

So yeah, back to the question. I will regret fucking up my life. I know I'll do just that.

7

I'm sure there will be more opportunities for you to take advantage of in the future

3

Looked inward and truly considered how my words and actions affected others

I (emotionally) hurt someone I cared about deeply, and it has taken years of work and therapy to begin to move past it

7

I wish I had a solid social network and gone straight to university. Your social network is a vital part of life. I was in an advanced K-12 primary school and wish I had been born to intelligent atheists who valued intelligence. I had teachers that all but wanted to fight my parents about how they neglected my potential, but I had no context to really understand what all that meant.

7

For a long time, I'd say accept that nothing was going to happen with this girl I fell for at the time, and focus on my writing (what I was in college for at the time, with an eye to getting into a great program at the uni down the road for slighty less total cost than just going there).

I've since learned it's important not to focus on what you could've done differently in the past. It's done, and it lead to wherever you are today. But boy, did that person - more accurately, the situation I found myself in re: that person - cause a series of events that included some pretty dark times.

But who's to say life right now would be better for it?

6

Gotten on antidepressants immediately after high school. I would have had my shit completely together by the time I graduated from community college and either succeeded in my original field (music recording) or gone to engineering school and finished before the pandemic.

6

I wish I had dropped out of college as I planned to.

6

Put more thought into realistic options for my career.

5

I think I did pretty well at 18. If I could have met my future partner earlier that'd be pretty sweet.

Otherwise, I'm happy with what I did... so I'll go with the bullshit dumb answer of "Buy lots of Apple stock" because I've got nothing else to use it on.

If you're asking what you should do... find yourself, have some crazy sex, don't fall into awful vices like gambling. Just enjoy yourself.

5

stop distracting myself from myself and come to terms with my identity

5

Regardless of this being a comment about your LGBT+ identity, this is good advice for anyone young.

All you out there 25 or younger, stop fighting who you are. Stop trying to fulfill other people's expectations of who you need to be. Focus on yourself and who you want to be and who you are.

6
- To a degree. If people are telling you "don't pursue that career in art, go get a normal job that at least buys you some sanity in the evenings", then maybe it might help to listen to them a little. You can still pursue art in your free time.
  
  4

I wish I had gone straight into college even though I was incredibly depressed and suffering from cptsd.

I could have been depressed and living in a dorm and possibly getting into wacky adventures or meeting somebody to love me rather than being depressed and living in my truck and scooting from minimum wage job to minimum wage job for 7 years before I finally started to get my shit together.

4

Be happier.

4

I thought it was cool to be sad. To be edgy. 20 years later I realized I had just been depressed my entire life. So, my thing would be “get therapy and some meds.” It would have made the next 20 years a lot easier.

10
- I never thought it was cool to be sad, there's just inadequate happiness fuel.
  
  2

Lost my virginity.

Being the (almost) 40 Year Old Virgin is not as great as they say it is.

4

Fuck it just get a hooker mate

3

To start taking care of my self. In all aspects.

The act of starting to love, appreciate and take care of oneself it's a very powerful life changer that can save and avoid you a lot of problems. From physic and mental health, to social relationships and to career/work and much more.

I feel and think life is much more enjoyable if you lookout for yourself and for others.

3

I more wish others had done me at that age.

3

Abstain from alcohol

2

Bought a house. The house I just purchased costs ~2500 a month. If I had bought it at 18, it would cost have 900 a month.

Even now, at 2500 a month, the rent price in my area for a 2Bed 2Bath shit box will surpass that cost in ~5 years.

1

Learned more about people's behavior, including my own, through (evolutionary) psychology, philosophy, history and so on.

How and why people (including oneself with this) behave the way they do is the most important thing I have learned in my life, unfortunately pretty late.

Still glad I've done it at all, many people never do.

1

I didn't make any life-ruining mistakes, but like others have said I'd make certain investments. And I'd put the eyelid holders from Clockwork Orange on my friend, show him Requiem for a Dream, and hope he learns not to experiment with drugs

0