I wish

“no love from my daddy cuz the coward wasn’t there”
2Pac dear mama
 
That is my favorite line in the whole song. My father was not around and I had to kind of be my own dad in a sense.  Not saying I raised myself like many kids have to nowadays. My mother did an incredible job with the limited resources available to her. However a woman cannot teach a man how to be a man. She can teach him what she thinks a man is but she can’t show him. So like most youth I had to gather lessons from elders, pop culture and literature. The down side is that I a have a lot of lessons I wished I learned in retrospect. So here is my list of what I wish I knew 10 years ago when I was 17. Young, not too dumb and full of…u know
 
1.       GOD IS NOT A GENIE:
Faith w/o works is dead. Now even if you don’t believe in God you know that every action has a equal and opposite reaction. Don’t say you want a house all the time and never actually go and look at some. Don’t say you want to lose weight but are on the VIP list @ Reggie’s Fried chicken and pigs feet Shack. Anything you want in life you must work for.
 
2.        DO YOU REALLY NEED THAT?
As with most of us I have a large collection of random things I bought that I have no idea why I bought them. I am a magazine collector and have issues of magazines dating back awhile. Now I tend to pay cash for my mags so if I calculate the cost of what I spent I’m looking at A LOT. Do yourself a favor and spend money on trivial things when you have that amount of extra cash.  “We spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need to impress people we don’t like” Will Smith. Younger self its ok..your world will not end if you wait for a sale or until your savings is larger than your checking  to buy random item #13.
 
3.        LOG OFF THE INTERNET:
Being a reserved(at times) shy(at times), introvert has a major drawback. You tend to not learn the finer parts of the social etiquette to quick. Like most young men you had to learn how to talk to women. That natural ebb and flow that Raheem the cool kid in your high school had with the ladies missed me. It took quite awhile to grasp. Spending many years as the big brother type or the “best friend” sucked majorly. However social networking sites made it easy to approach women. Taking the sting out of a non interested women verbally by not hearing it has a DOWN SIDE. You will quickly lose the skills you worked hard for to interact and vibe with others. Please note that more time spent online means the less time outside. 500 face book friends don’t count as a social calendar. Cyber and phone s-- do not count. Log off College Club, Blackplanet, Migente, MySpace, FaceBook, Craigslist, Twitter and get a life man.
 
 
4.         NO 2ND CHANCES:
No joking with this one. This is the most serious one I could think of that I wish the young me knew.  Life does not give a replay nor does it allow you to rewind and rewatch the footage.  You must treat every day as a blessing because there’s a long list of people that did not breathe today’s air. Youth is wasted on the young. Right now you have chances and potential you sadly won’t recognize until your older. Go and do what your dreaming about. Do not wait for the perfect moment because there is none. Life becomes a memory and you have a choice in what you remember.  The graveyard is filled with ideas, songs, and inventions that people were too afraid to pursue. Don’t end up with regrets because they can end your life quicker than a bullet. Appreciate people now because they can be on the list to not see tomorrow today. Give them their flowers while they are alive. Life can pass by so quick and then you wonder why didn’t you say I love you to your mother one last time. Life is not a game .  Life is a gift that you most hold on to and treasure each moment.
 
 
5.        _____________
No matter what could be told to our younger selves it does not matter. You only learn lessons when your able to absorb the information.  I could talk or type until I’m blue in the face. But you must be receptive and willing to learn lessons the easy way. Sadly I know myself very well and I tend to learn in hindsight better than foresight. So when I’m 37 I’ll be able to know better than when I was 27.
 
 
 
 
Preach The Comedian