Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the youth

Mary Schmich

Ladies and genltemen of the class of '97

Wear sunscreen!

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sun screen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advise has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh never mind. You will never understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in twenty years you will look back on photos of yourself and recall in a way that you can`t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don`t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is about effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are actually things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindsides you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing!

Don`t be reckless with other people`s hearts. Don`t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss!

Don`t waste your time on jealously. Sometimes your ahead, sometimes your behind. The race is long and, in the end it is only with yourself.

Remember compliments that you receive, forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw out your old bank statements.

Stretch!

Don`t feel guilty if you do not know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn`t know at twenty two what they wanted to do with there lives. Some of the most interesting forty year olds I know still don`t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You`ll need them when there gone.

Maybe you`ll marry, maybe you won`t , maybe you`ll have children, maybe you won`t, maybe you`ll divorce at forty, maybe you`ll dance the funky chicken on your seventy fifth wedding anniversary. Whatever you do don`t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance, and so are everybody else`s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don`t be afraid of it, or whatever other people think of it. It`s the greatest instrument you`ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions even if you do not follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly!

Get to know your parents, you`ll never know when they`ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings, they`re the best link to your past and the most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold onto. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle. The older you get the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you too hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you too soft.

Travel!

Accept certain inalienable truths. Prices will rice. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do you will fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don`t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you`ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don`t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you forty you will look eight five.

Be careful who`s advise you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advise is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than its worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.