Diary of a Winchester Lady: Would you rather?

This week my friends and I engaged in a game of ‘Would you rather?’ the game which offers two hypothetical situations and players must pick which of the two situations they would rather do. Amongst the proposed situations of having a toucan beak attached permanently to your face and losing half of your body, someone posed the question ‘would you rather re-live the past 10 years of your life or skip 10 years ahead into the future?’

The answer was unanimous; we would all rather re-live the past ten years of our lives. For all of us playing the game, this was not out of fear of missing the next ten years, it was out of a desire to correct our mistakes and resolve our regrets. With all of us being less than 23 years old, it was quite surprising that we already wish we had the chance to do our lives over.

There is no shortage in our society of nuggets of wisdom passed down through generations, of inspirational stories of how to overcome adversity or the best way to learn from our mistakes. But where is the information that prevents us from having regrets before we even begin our independent adult lives?

In my room I have a poster of Instructions for Life as stated by the Dalai Lama, including:

Judge your success by what you had to give up to get it

Share you wisdom; it is a way to achieve immortality

I am inspired by the wisdom on the poster, but found that the instructions for life read more like instructions for reflecting on your life, accepting the regrets and appreciating the lessons life has taught you rather than helping you not to end up with regrets.

An alternative set of life instructions are found in Baz Lurman’s song ‘Wear Sunscreen’; an attempt to set out guidelines for younger generations to try and live by throughout their adult lives. So while the Dalai Lama offers instructions for coping with the past, and Baz Lurman offers instructions for coping with the future – where are the instructions that will help us with the present?

As my teenage years draw to a close, I have decided to create a list of instructions to help teenagers with the challenges of a modern life.

1.       Do not break the rules unless you fully understand them.

2.       Ask questions. Do not waste your time guessing answers.

3.       Your parents will never be as angry at you as you image they will be.

4.       Only make friends with the people you like, not the people you think you should like.

5.        Do not fear disapproval from teachers. They are only ordinary people.

6.        The memory of a bad night out is better than no memory of a good one.

7.       Remember that logging in online means logging out of reality. The internet will always be around – family and friends will not.

8.       Be an individual if you want to.

9.       Be a lemming if you want to.

10.   Do not follow these instructions if you know you can make better ones for yourself.