What is your best advice for an 18-year old?

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A2A, hmm, don’t get asked for this sort of thing very often. I wasn’t a very typical 18 year old. The culture I graduated HS in was way different than the one you’re in.

I guess the best advice I can give you is that at 18, you’re still a kid, you’re going to keep being a kid for a long time, and it’ll be a sad day for you when you finally have to grow up. If nothing forces you to do it, and something like mental illness / addiction doesn’t keep you from doing it, you’ll slowly stumble into adulthood in 10–15 years.

Until that happens, don’t pretend. Get all your childishness out while the adults around you still think it’s cute. When I was in college, I skipped half of the first classes I had for the day and slept in my car. I was staying up very late chasing whatever technical curiosity had captured me at the time on the computer I had built.

These days I couldn’t be bothered to spend the time to build a computer, much less fritter away hours and hours doing nothing specific. But back then was a magical time where everything is neat and cool and I just wanted to experience all of it.

For other people that’s sex, or drugs, or starting a company, or playing in bands, or whatever. The thing is, so long as you don’t do anything really stupid to yourself that is going to force you to grow up all of a sudden, then you won’t have to grow up all of a sudden.

Take calculated risks. That means think about them before you do them. Having unprotected sex once in all likelihood won’t get her pregnant. But it’s just not wise. Figure out how to wrap it the next time. If you get into drugs, don’t get addicted and ruin the rest of your life. The people around you will be able to tell you what the risks are, it’s up to you to actually listen to them, and still learn how to have safe fun.