Advice I Wish I Gave My Past Self Before Studying in the US

This is all the stuff that, if I had a time machine, I would scream in the ear of my past self before he came to study at his dream university in the US. And here’s the funny part: it would likely have made little to no difference even if I could do that. Because he wouldn’t have listened, would’ve thought he knew better, and would’ve just gone and made the same mistakes again anyway. I’m the kind of guy who can never learn from other people’s experiences – I always have to touch the ‘Wet Paint’ sign to realize I shouldn’t have touched it. But perhaps there are smarter people than me that this can help if you take heed.

Boy giving advice to himself

- It's going to be hard. Really hard. Way harder than you could possibly imagine. All those Instagram stories you saw were a lie. None of those fantasies in your head are actually going to happen. Get ready to grow more than you ever have before in your life. But not the fun, movie kind of growth that happens in a three-minute montage set to some cool, trendy song. The slow, painful, excruciating, lonely, awful growth that happens when you have no other choice but to grow. And guess what? It'll be the best-worst thing that ever happened to you. That sentence could sum up this entire piece, honestly.

- No one will ever really help you with anything, ever. People might throw you an assist on minor things here and there, but at this point, your beginner's luck has run out and the training wheels are so long gone. Sink or swim, nobody really cares either way. Well, if you sink, they might care as they'll be annoyed to deal with the cleanup. That's really it.

- Stop overthinking things. There's really only two options with anything. You do it. Or you don't. The rest is a waste of time. Time that will never ever come back, just FYI.

- Read good books. If you can't, at least read summaries of good books. If you can't, at least watch YouTube videos about them. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and How to Win Friends and Influence People will teach you more about life than any school ever would. At least, I imagine they would, I still need to dust them off and read them at some point, but I have watched a lot of videos on them. There's a reason Warren Buffet doesn't have his degree from Wharton on his wall or his honorary degrees from Columbia and so many others, but does have a Dale Carnegie certificate proudly displayed by its lonesome.

- There's one word you need to put at the very front of your vocabulary permanently, and one you need to delete forever. The first word is 'start' and the second word is 'perfect.'

- Stop caring about being included. The only reason you aren't included is because you care far too much about being included. If you just did your own thing and stopped being so in your own head, people will fall over themselves to include you in everything. People seem scary. They aren't. Just talk to them.

- Stop listening to sad music; you're just making it worse.

- Clean your room.

- Make your bed.

- Learn to cook. (You're really shooting yourself in the foot if you don't do this. Do you know how much of your mental state is just down to the food you eat? If you knew, you'd change your diet really, really fast.)

- Network and connect with high-level people. A professor once told me college is the most expensive social network you'll ever join, and he was on the money with that one.

- It's going to be pain and suffering anyway. You really just have to choose your pain and suffering. Do you want the pain and suffering of giving up, or the pain and suffering of pushing through and making it to your goals? Hint: One is quite a bit better in the end.

- Don't give up or bend to who or what other people say you should be. Let them say whatever they want. When they give you advice, they're mostly just talking to themselves. If you feel something in your heart, do it.

- Remember how many famous people passed away this year? Remember how everyone talked about them for three days, and now no one even remembers? You're not even famous. Stop caring what people are thinking about you. No one is even thinking about you. Do what you want, nothing less. Life is too short for anything else.

- It's weird seeing your parents getting older. It's weirder seeing your siblings getting older. And there's no word for what it's like seeing yourself get older. This isn't even advice, just a heads up.

Lastly, make time for the real things. Sunsets, friends, the expensive coffee that you can't really afford and yet you said 'screw it' because you've been thinking about it for too long, movies, nice views, long walks, the feeling of wearing a warm hoodie straight out of the dryer, actually doing what you said you would, smiling, laughing — really just doing all the stuff you keep telling yourself you'll get around to. Yeah, you'll never get around to it unless you actively reject other, lesser things and decide to make time. Because when would you ever have time for a sunset? But what's the point of anything if you don't even have time for a sunset?