To The Baby Bats...
 

It gets better as you get older. Tell your friends this.

Every one else, tell the little ones about how getting older had an effect on your life.

ok i'll take my cap of and say a few words:

age and antidepressants makes you happier than you seem.
once you've learned to like the both of them..



syster sol: dem säger: hon är mad, mad, mad.

Just watch this and take notes :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xavFb4WH7o0

You'll learn that you're special, but that everyone else is too. Then hopefully you'll stop trying so hard to impress people with how cool you are.



And I know that I'm not "older", but there's a lot of growing up squeezed into the years between 14 and 19.

When you get older you have to take care of things, pay bills and do other stuff. It is almost like a different form of entertainment, being intelligent and helpful to others, as opposed to, going out to party every night to get a break from always being told what to do by teachers, parents or whomever is older, because everyone is older.

I miss being a teen. "OMG, was that old guy talking to you? I bet he was hitting on you as though you were interested or something." Yes, teen hangouts and clubs; an alternate reality where teens run everything.

What drugs are you on? The best years are the teenage ones.

This is a really good thread, AD.

It's a shame that I can't articulate my own input without sounding extremely bitter right now.

Not for me, my teen years ain't had shit on my twenties so far.

Hi, all -

Old school poster, resurrected from the dead. Kinda a zombie at this point in my life, kinda not.

I've answered this question before and after reviewing it from the past, will drop my sentiments here as well. ...

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Life and time are finite.

Marriage is A LOT of work.

Despite your best efforts, you will experience some degree of aches and pains if you continue to work out at hardcore intensity.

The worst day is easily countered and eliminated when your child or children wrap their arms around you and say they love you.

It's fun and educational watching your children grow and become individuals. Even better when they're willing to share pieces of their life outside the house with you.

The world is not a nice place although there are momentary snapshots of exquisite kindness and generosity. Savor them.

Not all family structures are the same and just because a child exists doesn't mean he or she has ever experienced love, a hug, comfort or security.

Not everyone is equal.

You'd best be able to talk yourself out of a jam when one arises - and if that should fail, you better be able to defend yourself with your hands and feet.

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I think it's also important to note that for those of you who are not married and / or do not have kids but are still living at home with your parents - to some degree, what I've written above regarding precious moments with one's children, if you step outside your comfort zone and look back in on the structure of your home, chances are your parents cherish pleasant contact with you to some degree. It's easy to give in to the feelings of discomfort when it comes to saying something quasi-mushy or holding onto a hug little longer than usual - but the offshoot of pushing past that discomfort usually results in a mutually beneficial moment of human sharing.

Usually.

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A few more:

There's always something new to learn and a set of open ears are beneficial but an active vocabulary is necessary for those moments when all that's filling your ears is a bunch of bullshit.

It's also worthwhile to learn how to really listen - and to speak meaningfully when it's necessary. Conversation is more than a bunch of empty, filler statements.

When you make a decision, stick to it and give it 100% of your effort. Don't waffle. There's no sense deciding on X and then wondering whether or not it was a good decision. That should have been part of your decision-making process. Once the decision is made, giving anything less than 100% cheapens / lessens both you and the end-result of your efforts.

Take your vacation every year. You earned it.

You don't hit a woman. Period. If hitting a woman somehow validates your manhood in your head, you've got other real issues you need to address about being a man. Hitting a woman points to anger and rage in your personality, not toward any scale of equality between the sexes. You consider her to be an "easy" target and a "safe" target, one that provides no threat. Any other excuse you tell yourself is just that - a weak excuse.

Having to take a child away from a mother while they are both screaming and reaching for each other sucks, even when the child is a victim of abuse.

There is no more distinct moment of clarity than when you are threatened directly with a deadly weapon. Broken bottles, needles, knives or a firearm pointed at you all initiate an exquisite fight-or-flight response and dump incredible hormones into your bloodstream.

Overcoming the natural urge to flee when this happens takes time and self-control.

Some people never rise above what could be considered animalistic traits.

The moment you "feel sorry for" or "pity" somone is the moment you have placed yourself above them. That is an elitist attitude, especially when negated with empty statements such as - everyone's the same or I don't discriminate.

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And finally, a little reflection from my own father, words he said to me back when I was a baby bat myself. "Take 'em or leave 'em", as my father always said to me then and still does today:

There are billions of people in this world and every single one is like a puzzle piece. There are many pieces that will fit together just fine, so to think that there's only one is to close off any number of other pictures your piece can make. No picture is better than another, they're all just different. But what I want you to understand is - if you're this young and wrestling with whether or not your picture is set and settled, I think you might be missing out on what lays ahead. Either way, whatever decision you make, you owe it to yourself to give it your all. Whatever you choose, I support you.

Edible Eye! Hey man. How's life been?

Life's been fine overall, E. :) Thanx for asking.

Good to "see you" again.

And I hope the same can be said for you - that life has been kind.

While this thread has been a nice read, I can't help but think anything I could tell my 14 year old self would be wasted on the silly cow. I can already see her rolling her eyes, going "uh-huh sure", then wandering off to continue doing the same dumb shit as usual.

Fair. Although you should know, somewhere in the back of your mind, same as I - when we were told such foolishness by our parents during our youth, the default setting was to give our parents the mental finger. Such is the way of rebellious youth. A cow? Negative. A 14 yr. old who believes he / she knows and understands everything about the world, aside from his or her own ignorance.

Think about what we (as adults) have maintained in our subconscious - and what has surfaced since we've had children of our own. That's why it's important to speak up, even if it seems like it's falling on deaf ears. Our words are like an investment for the future - one that we hope (and if invested wisely) will pay off.

If you give up or give the air of apathy toward his or her future - what's to stop him or her from applying the same energy toward it, as well?

Nah, I'm not saying we shouldn't try to give sound advice to those younger than ourselves. Just that my own feeling is, most of them will find the most valuable lessons they learned from growing up by reaching such knowledge for themselves. I can tell the ones having a rough ride at school that things will get better and people will become kinder as they grow up, even though there'll always be tossers in life, but while they're stuck in a crappy situation, I can't make the thought feel real to them, y'know?

Agreed.

On that level, it's not about pumping false, hot air into their ears - it's about letting them know we (as adults) have faith in where they're going. Unless, of course, they're total assholes, in which case it's perfectly acceptable to push them down a flight of stairs when no one's looking. >: )~

I wouldn't necessarily agree. I'm pretty young, and I would thoroughly consider any counsel I received from some of the people that frequent here.

Also, E_E: I like your avatar picture.

Fashion is nice, but its not the end of the world if you can't look exactly like you want to. You can still be you without looking like the Crow.

You wouldn't be you if you looked like the crow.

Thanx, man. It was time to update. I haven't sported the handlebars in years.

Haha, I meant the "eating a bottle of whiskey" part.

Ah, got it. The tag under my name used to say "Whiskey drinker" - but I guess they did away with 'em.

Anyway, cheers.

You're not 14, though.

Unless you are, in which case, MY inner 14-yr-old is super jealous that you get to play with tanks.

Also true. I don't know. From my understanding, at 23, I'm one of the younger people on the forum. I haven't had a whole lot of experience in life, you know?

The tank bit made me laugh. It reminded me of something I thought I'd share:

So the M2 Bradley is far from a tank, but it does have the fastest traversing turret in the world. When I was in Iraq, we were fucking off this one day and decided to have a Bradley Turret Rodeo. Hilarity ensued.

There's a few people around here about your age Versus. I'm 24 myself.

Cavalry years are more egocentric and obnoxious.

I mean, come on. I just told a story about spinning around on an unstable armored vehicle 12 feet tall because I was bored.

That's not something adults do.