The Musty Man, who writes an infrequently updated but thoroughly entertaining and well-written blog, uses his 30th birthday as an opportunity to dish out advice to the 20-somethings behind him. But first he protests at the well-worn tradition of older people telling younger people how it all will get better soon:
I don't remember the aged teenager telling the 9 year old me about the tsunami of hormones, self-doubt, clumsy fingers, or faked confidence in the face of complete inscrutabilities like drugs and vaginas. I don't remember the 22 year old telling the 19 year old me about the terrors of cluelessness, the revelation that it's called RAT RACE for a reason, the slow death of doing nothing much, the desperation of trying to find a place that fits and then occupy it when other people are probably trying to do the same thing, how much more complicated relationships are, even, than vaginas. So okay, well-wishers, I'm glad it's all gonna settle down a bit and yes of course it will be nice to have a little more predictability about things but don't think I ain't got my eye on you. You fuckers haven't told me the whole truth once, not ONCE.
Hilarious. From the advice itself, something all students should consider as they work to beat the system:
Habits matter. That whole bullshit host of people who couldn't stop telling you that your high school grades were gonna follow you forever were assholes. Your high school grades only come up now when you bust them out to shock people at work – a lot of dudes are never gonna get over the idea that all those high school grades actually meant something, so they'll still get a little crampy when you point out that you spent all of high school everywhere other than there and still managed to make it just as far up the ladder as they did. That's still gonna be fun for you. The danger isn't grades, it's habits. You're in the style of not paying a lot of attention to much because you feel like you don't need to, and you know, you don't. School is never gonna be a thing that takes 100%. But in the end, you ain't up against grades, you're up against your own self. And trust me – in 10 years, you won't regret the grades but you will regret the bad habits.
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Here's the Musty Man's post on his ex-girlfriends. I recommend it for all men. He says you want to ultimately get to a point where you can be happy for an ex-girlfriend and not just fake being happy for her (i.e. secretly wish her new boyfriend gets cancer in his dick).
“in 10 years, you won’t regret the grades but you will regret the bad habits.”
awesome man!
I’ll send an email to this guy, this really makes a difference.