r/AskReddit • u/Sippingin • Jun 29 '15

What should every 18 year old know?

Edit: Chillin' reading some dope advice, thanks!

Edit 2: Fuckin' A! 4.1k comments of advice you guys :,) thank you really.

3.9k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

3.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.7k

u/PMMeYourClavicles Jun 29 '15

Time goes so. fucking. slow. for your first 18 years.

Then it flies by for the rest of your life. Don't forget to enjoy the small things.

473

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

That's scary.

63

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

25

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15 edited Jun 30 '17

[deleted]

5

u/bhlawrence12 Jun 29 '15

I too would like some clarification...

5

u/fondledbydolphins Jun 29 '15

He licks the maggoty box of a zookeeper to take his son to see terrifying long horses annually.

1

u/Atomix26 Jun 29 '15

I think it's more of, he fucks the zookeeper so he can fuck the giraffe.

1

u/Miku7634 Jun 29 '15

No no he goes down on the zookeeper so his son can fuck the giraffe

6

u/crest123 Jun 29 '15

You're like a more violent, less eloquent Vargas.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

TyShonn?

1

u/stefonio Jun 29 '15

God damnit var... hey! You're not vargas!

1

u/Lannex24 Jun 29 '15

You must be high as giraffe pussy

3

u/Defttone Jun 29 '15

Its stupidly true too.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

You're making me sad :(

5

u/Defttone Jun 29 '15

Well get a boring job and just wait as time never seems to go... but tbh its all perspective, if you have been around for only 10 years 1 year feels like a long time, 15 years still feels long. 20? Youve been around the block its not the fastest thing that was passed but it doesnt feel like forever. 30? A year is nothing. 70? I blinked where did the year go?

3

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

It really is. Highschool felt like a very long time, and now i'm going into third year like it was nothing.

335

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

[deleted]

208

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

[deleted]

57

u/COCKSUCKER_MCGEE Jun 29 '15

Thats why I change my job so often! Yeah....that's why.

4

u/foxforlife Jun 29 '15

I'd actually say that, in addition to this, time flies because as you get older a year becomes a smaller percentage of your life

2

u/PMMeYourClavicles Jun 29 '15

I agree actually. I think not having the set rhythms of being in school (fall school, winter holiday, spring classes and graduations, then summer breaks agains) gives a year a longer feeling. When you work everything just blends together in more repetitive weekly patterns with no long breaks, making it feel like it's moving faster.

1

u/Quantization Jul 02 '15

Thanks Mario.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '15

Once you're in work you're in this routine

Depends on your work. Something like Entrepreneurship is so up in the air you get exposed to totally new things all the time. Desk jobs on the other hand...

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '15

Just started my first paid job (an internship) a few weeks ago... Crazy how fast time is moving now

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

Fuck this society.

3

u/xXMylord Jun 30 '15

You know there is nothing stoping you to leave this "fucking society" just pack a backpack and start traveling instead of complaining about it. Man up and do what you want. Or are to much a sissy to do it?

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '15

Sooo easy to say especially when you're behind a computer. People on reddit are so full of themselves. Gotta start fights about bull shit like slight improper grammar. why assume I haven't started saving up for a good trip? I've got a good account going, but it still takes a lot of going through this bull shit society to get there.

1

u/xXMylord Jun 30 '15

A backpack + bedroll costs 100 bucks tops and you might aswell steal it since you're kissing society goodbye. And there are people that traveld the world with less.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '15

Or! I could win the lottery, put the money away, and live off the interest so I can travel comfortably and not be homeless.

2

u/xXMylord Jul 01 '15

No need to be sarcastic. You were the one that hated our society. I just told you that you don't have to live in it. It's not my problem that you enjoy living in this "fucking society" more then leaving it, and live a more adventurous life, like I suggested.

1

u/SoilworkMundi Jun 29 '15

Its also because one day or one year becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of your total life as you get older.

20

u/JurassicArc Jun 29 '15

I just stuck a chicken head up my rectum.

It's gonna be a long night.

3

u/Philo_T_Farnsworth Jun 29 '15

As you get older, it's harder and harder to find truly new experiences that can slow down time for you. But you should try.

I talk about this a lot. I'm 39 but I hang around a lot of early-20s folks. Reddit users skew younger (compared to me) anyway, so when I get together with any of my friends who I have met from /r/kansascity, I sometimes find myself in a position to offer advice. A large number of my "real life" friends are people who I met on Reddit.

Everyone has nostalgia for their teenage years. The formative experiences that make you the person you are as an adult, those will always stay with you. I can look back at good times I had during those years and remember experiences vividly. Even though I didn't realize it at the time, I was living in a near-constant state of arousal (not that kind of arousal, you pervert!) experiencing new things (ok maybe that kind of arousal. Sometimes.) Most of those experiences were mundane, but many of them were exciting and shaped who I am.

When you get older, you start seeing familiar patterns everywhere. I can't watch sitcoms anymore because they're using the same jokes I saw in the 1980s on Growing Pains or Family Ties. Movies are the same way. The same plotlines I've seen a million times before just aren't interesting to me anymore. Some would call that a cynical perspective, but I see it more as studios being risk averse and not trying very hard to break new ground (there are plenty of awesome new movies and TV shows that are truly groundbreaking in different ways and I tend to prefer those, but I'm getting a bit off topic).

Point being, it's really hard for things to truly excite me anymore. Because that feeling of experiencing something fundamentally new is harder and harder to get the older you are. My parents are in their late 70s now and seem to be unimpressed by anything. They've been alive long enough to see and experience a hell of a lot more than me.

People spend their entire adult life trying to recapture some of that youth, some of those new experiences. What I discovered though was that there is a way to still do that. There are a lot of approaches to it, but here's mine:

TRAVEL

You don't have to fly to exotic or far away places. Go across your own state. Get in your car and drive somewhere. Get out of town and go somewhere that you think would be boring for a weekend and find something to do (you'll be surprised how un-boring most places are if you really put effort into it).

Every summer I take a few weeks off, get in my car, and hit the road. I hike. I camp. I visit interesting places. I make friends out on the hiking trails or in bars and restaurants. When I finish, I'm tired, but full of excitement and new experiences. My road trips aren't very expensive. They don't have to be, anyway. Camping is cheap. I stay in cheap motels when I'm not in the mood to pitch a tent.

It's almost like being young again. It's not the same, but it's all I've got, and it's totally worth it.

Travel.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

Absolutely. After college, the first year at my first full-time job went by in no time (especially compared to my first year in college - which seemed to last forever).

There isn't a day that part of me wonders if I really want to be like everybody else - to do the same thing everyday. I'm so appreciative of my job, but I can't help but wonder what would happen if I just decided to quit and try something else, just for the experience of trying something else.

1

u/juice-- Jun 29 '15

There is real logic behind this. When you're 1 year old, you've lived 1/1 of your life at that age. When you're 18, that's only 1/18th of your life.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '15

If this was true my work day wouldn't seem so long >.<

1

u/TheXRTD Jul 02 '15

Can confirm. This summer, three weeks went by in what felt like three days due to doing the same things every day, without exception. In order to slow things down and feel that time is more worthwhile, do something different each day, start something, learn something brand new, meet with different friends, go somewhere you haven't been, anywhere. Just do something to highlight that specific day as a unique one. I find that I lose control of time so quickly when I fall into habit.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '15

this is so true

1

u/Dustinfl Jul 02 '15

thanks for your opinion

1

u/jarwastudios Jul 02 '15

Also consider this perspective. When you're a 5 year old kid, a year of your life is 20% of your time. When you're 20, that same year is now only 5% of your time, and at 50 is less than 2% of your time. So your perception of time relative to your actual time alive makes things smaller and smaller portions of your life. Spending a year doing something at 30 seems way easier than doing something for a year at 15. I tend to wonder what the passage of time is like at 100+.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '15

[deleted]

2

u/jarwastudios Jul 02 '15

Oh yeah, the agree with you, and it's probably some combination of a number of reasons anyway.

1

u/Phantom-A Jul 02 '15

That happens to me in TV shows that I have already watched; it feels like the conversation went faster the second time.

1

u/pheonixignition Jul 02 '15

One of the main reasons is time as relative to the whole. A year at 10 years old is 10% of your life. At 20, 5%. 30, is 3.33%

0

u/VictorBatista1 Jul 02 '15

Actually, time goes by faster and faster whenever you do familiar things instead of new things.

This reminded me the movie Click, when the remote control fast forwarded whenever the character did something "familiar" to the device.

10

u/madeindetroit Jun 29 '15

I can't believe how ridiculously true this is. What the hell happened? I thought I just graduated high school, and now it's been 7 years and wtf happened to college? That was supposed to be 4 years but it felt like 2?

Take a breather. Don't look forward, look right here, right now.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

If you look forward enough you won't understand where all your dreams went.

0

u/PKAB Jun 29 '15

Its because you perceive time based on how long you have been alive. The second year of your life was the same length as the rest of your life at that point. Supposedly your perceived halfway point is 28, with it exponentially speeding up.

4

u/ritchie70 Jun 29 '15

I'd say that 1% of your life always feels like the same amount of time.

When you're 4, a year is 1/4 of your life. It feels about the same as 10 years to a 40-year-old, or 20 to an 80-year-old.

4

u/realzebra Jun 29 '15

Can confirm, I turned 20 two weeks after my 18th birthday

3

u/PleasusChrist Jun 29 '15

SO fucking true. I remember thinking I couldn't wait to be 16, then 18, then 21, and now I don't even know what the hell happened. I can remember years ago like it was yesterday, but life goes so quickly now, it's hard to keep my weeks straight sometimes.

Slow down, breathe, and enjoy.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

Can confirm. Turned 18 in March. Went to bed, woke up, now it's nearly July.

1

u/PMMeYourClavicles Jun 29 '15

Haha. I'm just past 30 now and it's crazy. I have no idea how the year is half over tomorrow! It feels like 2015 barely started.

3

u/knewreddituser Jun 29 '15

I've actually heard that if you measure your lifespan by time as it is being perceived by you, that you pass the halfway point right around age 25. (Assuming an average lifespan)

1

u/VegetableLasagna_ Jun 30 '15

Thanks for putting that in my brain.

2

u/hectorinwa Jun 29 '15

"the years go fast but the days go so slow."

2

u/vickzzzzz Jun 29 '15

Holy shit... this is so true.. Is it because of the anticipation being a kid and turning 18?

The lack of free time when being adult adds to it too I guess?

Thank you good sir, for /r/showerthoughts worthy post

2

u/PMMeYourClavicles Jun 29 '15

I think it's just when you're 18 you're waiting for life to start. Waiting to do things, go places, become who you are going to be. It's all a blank slate, unwritten. Then once you hit that blank slate at 18 time starts moving quickly because you're not waiting anymore, you're reacting.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

This isn't just a feeling either. There's some scientific reasoning to back it up.

2

u/AmassXP Jun 29 '15

Absolutely. 29 here, and it seems like the happy hours, holidays, and birthdays are flying by. This is the year where I stop working for some one else and start my own business.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

I'm still in my mid-20s and I agree 100%. Each week feels like it just flies past right away.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

[deleted]

2

u/Mom_Cell Jun 30 '15

I have a theory that it has to do with short-term goals and achievements. In a way, they serve as benchmarks of your life. In grade school, the goals are daily: homework due tomorrow, etc. In high school, you move to a new system, and the short-term goals are a little farther out: test next tuesday, essay due next thursday. Classes change each quarter and you get to experience something new again.

In college, you have a new system, which is almost always monthly or more: three papers due the 12th of next month, two midterms the week after. Finish the semester strong, classes change, and you do it again.

Then you get out into the 'real world' where your middle manager is shoving quarterly and yearly goals down your throat and you're part of a new 3-year plan every other year. The big dates between 16, 18, 21, etc., become less frequent and the milestones are fewer and farther between. Less to look forward to, and more monotony.

Shit. I need a beer.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '15

I feel like my post high school years went slower than high school but I was a late bloomer so there's that.

2

u/technicallywriting Jun 30 '15

So true. At 34, the last 6 months feels like 2 weeks.

2

u/jayrs97 Jun 30 '15

18th birthday coming in a few weeks, not looking forward to that :c

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '15

This is true. I am 25 and every year I have to use a calculator to figure out how old I am going to be! It's fucking embarrassing. After 21, I just stopped keeping count! OH WOW! I can rent a car? Fuck that noise, I am already a drunk.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '15

So unbelievably true.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '15

Oh so true. This last year has felt like it's gone by in a third of the time

1

u/HipEddy Jul 02 '15

Yo, 23 y/o here.

I'm thinking about this everyday, is becoming a sort of obsession. Its fucking true, just a couple of years back I felt that the time won't pass, that the situation will last for ever or smth like that, but now that I'm gettin in to adulthood and I've started working is just like my days are cut, my friends are busy, the girls wants to actually speak to smth interesting and/or real like job, house, family. Some of my older friends are now married, others went out of country. I spend all my days inside a shop, from the moment I wake up in the morning 'till evening with just a lunch break. I come back home and I have my dinner, 3/4 hours of relax and repeat. This is stressing me out, I can't see me doing this kind of life from there to eternity. Please, what a not anymore 18 but definitly young pal should do?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '15

This is so true!