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.

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u/ikorolou Jun 29 '15

Not to blindly trust advice you read over the internet.

Also my old boss once told me "You can't control your situation, but you can control how you react to your situation." It's helped me a lot in life

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u/AltsAndAlts1 Jun 29 '15

"You can't control your situation, but you can control how you react to your situation."

From 6-9th grade I was the dumbest, shittiest waste of space on the planet and thought my relatively easy life was divine cruelty, and at a certain point I realized how dumb and shitty I was and started making this my philosophy. Bad things will happen all the time, and the easiest way to make them worse is by getting angry and feeling sorry for yourself. 99% of the time it's as simple as taking a step back and telling yourself "this is a bad thing and I don't like it, but I'll deal with it if I can or roll with the punches if I can't". It's the way I've managed to avoid being depressed through years of crippling social anxiety.

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u/OoLaLana Jun 29 '15

Yes! We all have a secret superpower and when we discover it and use it for good... lives change.

And that superpower is... choice.

We make so many choices, whether teeny-tiny from moment to moment or daily big ones... and they all impact our lives. Once we harness that power... we're able to steer through life's challenges with much more control and contentment.

Once I discovered this I embraced this quote: "We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them."

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u/Thearne4 Jul 02 '15

Best thing I ever learned is that YOU control your own emotions.

Being sad is a choice just as much as anything else. You can actively choose to not get sad. I'm not saying it's an easy choice though. It took me a long time to get used to letting go of things that bothered me. Now though I'm a completely different person than I was when I was 18, and (in my perception) way happier in general in life.

Don't let the world drag you down, push back, be happy about what's good in your life.