Wear sunscreen

By Mary Schmich – Chicago Tribune (abridged)

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

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. You will not understand this power and beauty until you are faded. But trust me in 20 years you will look back on photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how fabulous you looked.

Don’t worry about the future. Worry is about as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things which never crossed your mind, the kind of things which blindside you at 4pm on and idle Thursday.

Do one thing a day that scares you.

Don’t be reckless with other people’ hearts and don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Don’t waste time on jealousy . Sometimes you are behind, sometimes ahead. The race is long and in the end it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your love letters, throw away bank statements.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22. Some of the most interesting don’t know at 40.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’ve gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance at your 75th wedding anniversary. Your choices are half chance – so are everybody else’s.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

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

Get to know you parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be kind to your siblings they are the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold onto. The older you get the more you need people who knew you when you were young.

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

Respect your elders.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you are 40 it will look like you are 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on sunscreen.