“Do what’s gonna make you sleep at night.”
Life is life, and it hits us with difficult decisions all the time. The most natural thing for us might be to seek support and guidance. Different people will give you different opinions and suggestions. But at the end of the day, it is you that will make a choice and suffer the consequences. People outside of the situations are instigators. Your decisions won’t affect their lives, but it will yours. So, it’s crucial for you to make choices that make you feel good and won’t regret. Do what makes you happy and not others. Prioritize yourself because you should never expect another person to prioritize you.
“Give them hell.”
Be angry. Be passionate about whatever you’re doing. Continue to chase your wants and needs. Don’t be afraid to make a few people feel uncomfortable along the way. Life is not meant to be smooth all the time. Fight when you need to fight and chill when you need to chill. Know when something’s worth fighting for. You can’t please everyone you meet, so it’s time that you stop trying to do so. Be mean. Be impolite. Be whatever you need to be to muster enough firepower to realize big plans.
“No, I will never support…”
Sometimes, you just have to trust your friends. Listen to what your close friends have to say in response to your troubles. Remember that you went to them for advice for a reason. They may be saying what you wanted to hear in the first place. More often than not, we want something that feels good but is clearly bad for us, and it is up to our friends to sprinkle some logic on our heads.
“Stop talking about it.”
My mother seems to be a firm believer in the idea that if you stopped dwelling on things that upset you, you would eventually distance yourself from the troubles enough so that you see the situation more clearly and it won’t bother you anymore. Talk about issues to solve them. Resist repeatedly complaining about the same things. Take action to resolve conflict or shut up about it.
“Go ahead without me.”
This was my friend’s response when I asked if she wanted to go to Victoria’s Secret with me. As she suggested, I went ahead without her. It’s essential that you learn to enjoy time on your own. I still had loads of fun treating myself to a new collection of panties. And I don’t just mean lingerie-shopping. This piece of advice applies whenever you can’t seem to find anyone to go to an event with you. Just go on your own! Go to that party. Watch that movie. Try that new boba place. Do the things you desire, even if you have to do them alone. It’s better to deal with the initial awkwardness of doing things by yourself than to suffer the regret of missing out. Life will go on.
“Don’t be a Debbie Downer.”
My friend threw this cliché at me at some rooftop kickback full of strangers. While I’m still having trouble with this one because I love to criticize everything, I agree that it is good to push your boundaries consistently and expand your comfort zone. Yes, I said “expand” instead of “step out of,” because I believe you should make new, strange things into things you’ve learned to enjoy. You might be double majoring in chemistry and math and is stressing over your upcoming midterm, or you’re jumping between classes, labs, and a job, but you should remember to have some fun sometimes. You’re young. Let college be your time to explore, experience, and create all those crazy stories that you will tell your friends about over dinner parties in your forties. It’s easy to pick at the flaws, so I challenge you to find some good in every situation.
“Go home.”
Take care of yourself. Pushing limits can get exhausting after a while. Knowing when to stop and say no is a useful skill to have.
Honorable mentions:
“You should snatch them all.”
“End the two-party system.”
“Don’t die on me”
[feature photo by Clever Visuals on Unsplash]