Thirteen things I wish someone had told me when I was 20

Looking back there are a few things that I wished someone told me when I was 20… However, being a 20 year old I doubt if I would have listened!

I’d love to hear your thoughts too, what you would tell a 20 year old version of yourself. Here is mine…

1.I wish I had known that plucking my eyebrows meant I would be drawing them in for the rest of life.

2.I wish I had learned to drive. Someone should have forced me when I was 20. By the time I tried for the third time at fifty, I had nearly driven several driving instructors into serious therapy. When I neatly parked the nose of drawtheline_002the car between two parked cars, decided it might never happen.

3. Perhaps life would have been better if I had my hair cut when I was younger. Instead, I looked like Shirley Temple on steroids, and this set me apart, made me shy and self conscious. My freaky hair stood out.

4. If only they told me it would return to fashion! As in the 70’s my wild hair was admired and people thought I had spent money getting that look.

5. I wish I had known that the pretty boys were the ones to keep well away from, hearbreakers every one. I fell for a couple and it hurt.

6. If only I kept dancing, and didn’t give up my ballet. That would have kept the puppy fat down. Been better for my deportment, and I might have even got a job at the ‘follies,’ well I can dream….

7. I wish I had talked to my grandfather about his early life, but sad to say I didn’t know much about his young life. Then it was too late.

8. If I had known one day I would want to bake the famous ‘cricket club tea cake’, I would have made Mum write the recipe for me.

9. Someone should have encouraged me to be better at saving, told me about the magic of compound interest. Enthralled me with the warm feeling that money accumulating can give. But no one did. I came from a family of hopeless spendthrifts, well except for Mum who fought a losing battle.

10. I wish I could have been confident when I was young, someone could have told me the world would not collapse if I made a mistake, or said the wrong thing. Confidence came much later. I have the bravery of the old now. Or is it the craziness?

11. I wish someone had encouraged me to paint more, as by the time I found an opportunity I was a little like Grandma Moses. But I am loving my art now.

12. We weren’t warned about the sun when I was younger, I baked myself using oil and basted myself like a chicken being roasted. I have so far escaped serious harm but the skin on my cleavage needs ironing.

13. The truth probably is not what they should have told you, but what you should have LISTENED to, mostly at 20 we feel we know a lot, and yet life has so many lessons to teach, and nobody can tell you some things, you just have to live it!

If you could go back, what would you tell a 20 year old version of yourself?