When you were 13, you thought you knew everything. Now, as you get older, you realize that there were things you might have done differently...socially, school, etc...if someone explained the way the world works in a way that you could relate to.

What advice would you give to a 13 year old?

Get someone to set you up with a large trust fund.

i'll jot that one down, irish~

don't trust anyone...
the working world sucks, enjoy life and live it up...
getting old sucks...
getting married is like eating blowfish, sometimes its great or sometimes it can kill ya

Don't take the old and bitter people too seriously.

ha! mark twain said it best
"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."

other than that? the lecture i gave my cousins - "i know you're going to do drugs, if you haven't already. but i want you to know that you probably won't do anything that i haven't done or that your parents haven't done. so talk to me, tell me what you're doing. and i will NEVER rat you out. and while we're talking about drugs, stay away from chemicals. smoke pot and eat mushrooms."

Suge, glad you talked to your cousins about the benefits of an all-natural diet.

wrap it up!

suge...love the twain quote. thanks~

ooh - ralph, i gave the cousins that lecture too. especially the boy and all his friends. 'never trust a girl when she tells you she's on the pill or she hasn't slept with anyone. use a condom or you'll end up diseased or a daddy.'

and brenda, it was great advice - and it worked - especially considering tons of kids they went to school with ended up with drug problems, or dead from heroin overdoses.

seriously...told my kids to relax, enjoy your youth, don't cave in to academic peer pressure, have fun in life, listen to your intuition, question things/people, tell mom to pipe down when she rants too much.

theres no sex in the champagne room.

Sex is awesome, but wait as long as you possibly can! I waited till 17 and wish I had waited longer. Enjoy being young,  have fun, before you know it 30 is gonna be knockin' at your door - HARD!

Violence really is okay in very small doses....

I would tell a 13 year old--come to think of it my half sister is 13, I should tell her this--
Stay away from things like Cosmo/Glamour magazines, Fox News, and people that follow your every movement. These will only warp your perception of reality.
Cling to your family and your sense of self, but don't forget that life changes constantly and you should be willing to accept the opportunity to renew.

Oh, and uh, wait as long as possible to have sex. Focus on your interests--not some boy's interests. Trust me on this.

and I second Suge K.'s word on the "all-natural" diet... stick with earth-provided substances.

work is highly overrated.

Don't date anybody "exclusively" until after high school.  My mother told me not to have a boyfriend, and of course I did.  Now that I look back, he wasted a lot of my time, and high school kids take their relationships too seriously.

drugs, when used responsibly and in moderation, can be quite fun.

Sometimes you can't get a 13 year old kid to listen you...period.

13 year olds have a universal understanding that they know everything....and us old farts don't know shit.  They're new.  Their generation is somehow different.  They're sending text messages, while we still use email.   They're going through stuff that our generation didn't.....like problems with girls, rich kids with privilege, and bullies at school.  *yeah....right kid*.

One of the my favorite things to tell a know-it-all kid is a quote straight out of Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas":

"Don't fuck around son.  And if you hang around people who do, don't be surprised when the bill comes due....drifting through the curtains of some darkened barroom when the cops want to make an example of someone".

To not look back.

"Yesterday has ended.
Tomorrow holds no promises.
Live for today!"

and that people need to EARN his/her trust.
Don't start out by giving someone 100 points and deduct 5 points everytime the trust is lost.

Instead...start with zero points and add 5 points everytime the trust is earned.

Wish I would have learned that  loooooooooooong before I turned 40!

No matter how often you do it, you will never, ever, ever go blind.

Financial aid is a great thing, but find a college that will PAY for you to be there.

that the stock market crashes every 10 years or so.  ARRRGHGHG!

s&w 39 cal always make it past the metal detectors at school.

Don't trust whitey.

If you're a boy, and suddenly you find yourself looking at other boys all the time, you're probably gay, and that's okay.

don't drink the kool-aid

Don't get pregnant when you're 14.

fuck em if they can;t take a joke

"Use less teeth next time."

"Your dad counts his porno mags.  Don't try it."

Do whatever you want, have fun. Life's not serious. There's no permanent record, school's a joke after fifth grade, and your history books are mainly fabricated. Success is mostly who you know.

condoms

Grow a garden. Prepare the bed, add compost, manure, whatever. Fence it off from the critters. Put shady plants where they'll thrive, others that need it, in the full sun. Water appropriately. Know that some will die. You'll learn a lot from gardening. Plus, it's cheap fun, can feed you when the stores are looted during the next big one.

Cultivate your friends as your garden. Some you'll have to leave alone a lot, others you'll have to keep at arms length, some you'll have to dump for your own sake. The ones you really love and who love you are truly family. Treasure them, make a sacrifice to help them even when it hurts, visit them, and when you can't, call or email to let them know you care. They will be the candle in your darkest hours. Tell them you love them. Invite them over for meals. Help them grow their dreams. Marry the best one.

Junior college is a bargain. Go. Especially if you are wasting your time in high school. If you are, drop out. Go to JC.  If you decide that Burger King is no fun at 30, or that's the last time you're getting paroled from prison, think about JC (and no, I'm not talking about Jesus.) If you don't have money, they have programs that will pay for your college 100%. Really. I spent two years at a community college and then transferred to UC Berkeley. The best teachers were at JC.

Also remember that college is not for everyone. We're going to need carpenters, plumbers, electricians, bartenders, and plenty of other well-paid people who didn't go to college. Go to college to broaden your mind, not your paycheck.

Don't join  the military to go to college. It's a sucker bet. Only join the military if you want to BE in the military, not for some nebulous future benefit. Remember, someone's going to eat those bullets. If you DO decide to join, nail down a job guarantee (which isn't *really* a guarantee, by the way) for a higher echelon position with training...something besides firing a weapon, ideally.

Some decisions you can make now, i.e. slapping genitals with somebody else, getting in trouble with the law, etc. can fuck up your life FOREVER.  Others can end it. Remember 1-800-SUICIDE...especially for your friends without an uncle. Nothing is ever that bad...for long.

Pick a goal. Don't worry, I won't be disappointed if you decide not to be a doctor, architect, quarterback, whatever. Just have a goal. Plan backwards to where you are from where you have to be to achieve your goal. That's called project planning.  And it's okay to change your mind to a different goal. When the wind shifts, you trim your sails accordingly.

You can come back from almost anything. Trash your credit rating, fuck up your resume, lose your bestest beau, whatever.  Best not to go down that path, but if you do (and all of us make some mistakes!), remember that the world can forgive and forget.  Ask for mercy rather than justice. Then turn around and offer it to others.

trust no one

stay away from Yelp...

There are precious few employers that will consider your gaming skills a valuable asset.

When I was 14, I hoped that one day I would have a
girlfriend.

When I was 16 I got a girlfriend, but there was no
passion, so I decided I needed a passionate girl with
a zest for life.

In college I dated a passionate girl, but she was
too emotional. Everything was an emergency; she was a
drama queen, cried all the time and threatened suicide.
So I decided I needed a girl with stability.

When I was 25 I found a very stable girl but she was boring.
She was totally predictable and never got excited about
anything. Life became so dull that I decided that I needed
a girl with some excitement.

When I was 28 I found an exciting girl, but I couldn't keep
up with her. She rushed from one thing to another, never
settling on anything. She did mad impetuous things and made
me miserable as often as happy. She was great fun initially
and very energetic, but directionless. So I decided to find
a girl with some real ambition.

When I turned 31, I found a smart ambitious girl with her feet
planted firmly on the ground and married her. She was so
ambitious that she divorced me and took everything I owned.

I am now older and wiser, and am looking for a girl with big tits.

*from an old buddy pp*

i would tell myself at 13, dont drink smoke and party too much, not because you become a degenerate loser, but you wont get any taller.

Have sex with as many teenage girls as you can.  There's a hard stop when you turn 18.

drugs are bad- mkay? ;)

Nothing is as urgent as it seems....

honesty is not the best policy
there will always be another party
get sleep
don't drink or do drugs
the next five guys you think are cute, run the opposite direction
drink a lot of water
don't smoke
wear sunscreen
don't diet
exercise
nothing is as serious as you think
travel more
the "popular kids" in high school will get fat

When you get into high school, don't have the same boyfriend until you graduate...have fun, date others and don't take your life too seriously..you'll have plenty time for that when you become an adult!

Believe in yourself.
Surround yourself with family and friends who respect & love you.
Take risks.  Try new things.
Enjoy what comes your way.

don't touch meth

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You can be whatever you wanna to be when you grow up....
so long as you're willing to suck it up and put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears.  There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Everything happens for a reason...

It's really not the end of the world....

My mom always told me to go to every party that you're invited to... :o)

Don't care about what other people think....

Be friends with everyone....
I was in the school plays
I played softball, rugby, soccer, basketball
I was in the chess club
I was in the table tennis club
I was in the outdoors club
I went to school games
I went to the school dances
I was part of the ballroom dancing club
I was in the school band

Just do what you want to do.

5 more years kid, you'll be an adult and out of here! So think about what you want to do for yourself NOW.  

Honestly had I thought more seriously about the future as a kid I think my ambitions would be a lot more higher than where I'm at now (chained to a desk, working for somebody's else's mercy).

1) If you are Gay then come out already!  
2) start a mutual fund
3) Oh, and use sunscreen.