I am turning 18 tomorrow. Any life advice for me

  • Contramuffin@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    The biggest advice I can give you is, you need to try to be social. It’s easy to hang out with friends in high school because everyone’s locked into the same building every weekday for 6 hours.

    Once you’re an adult, you no longer have that limitation. Even college is more of a “go to class for 2 hours a day then leave afterwards” type of experience. It’s certainly liberating to not be forced to be someplace for long periods of time, but it also means that the primary reason that you hang out with your friends (ie, because they’re already there with you) is now gone. It can make for a very lonely experience.

    You need to go out of your way and actively maintain your friendships. Make plans to meet up at least once a week or something. Otherwise, you won’t really get another chance to make deep friendships

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Yeah in college I experienced both extremes. I spent about a year and a half completely isolated, just traveling between classes and my dorm. It was self destructive and my grades and mental health suffered. Then I made some life changes and started going to clubs and events and made friends and suddenly it was easier to study even though I had less time. I became extremely social and found myself spending nights doing everything from deep discussions of big ideas to long nights drinking with friends to lots of casual sex to long nights working on projects.

      Because of all this I left college far more well rounded and prepared for my career and my marriage. To this day the skill of how to make friends and positive acquaintances has stuck with me and been a majorly useful skill.