18th Birthday- Advice to self

My youngest child turned 18yrs of age a few weeks ago, I am no longer the parent of an actual ‘child’ as a parent. But this post isn’t about change, or loss of role, or being sad. Actually, me and my partner are having much fun with our adult kids who seem to like hanging out with us, so all good on that front!

This post got me thinking about my 18yr old self, what my world was like. Picture the scene, its 1988, ‘Madchester’ (if you know, you know) is reaching it’s biggest heights. The music, the clubs, nights out at the Hacienda with Acid House and Indie music being the only religion of relevence.  It was a massive privilege to be a Mancunian in the late 80’s. However, my 18yr old self wasn’t thriving so much.  Riddled with insecurity, awful levels of self-confidence, scared, socially pretty inept and not doing at all well in college life. The Smiths shouting out the message “I am human and I need to be loved Just like everybody else does.” seems to sum it all up!

I wish I had done much more at 18yrs of age, known more, I wish my present self would have given that girl a bloody good shake, a hug and some advice. I absolutely know that all of those experiences, the person I was, was necessary so I could become the person I am, but it took a long, LONG time to evolve into something I quite like these days.

So, what advice would you give to your 18yr old self? What would you say that could have helped, and would they have listened anyway!!

As for my 18yr old, she’s fairly cool, has bloody decent levels of emotional intelligence, she absolutely knows who she is and is pretty good at challenging what's wrong with world, I wonder what her future 55yr old self would advise for self-improvement? Maybe less Ubers and keeping her room tidy as a start?