Growing up happens fast. It’s not about the numbers that we keep count of but the person you slowly and unknowingly become. The level of understanding you start to attain. Being grown up is beautiful, but I must advise you;
Recognize the job trap. Being jobless does not mean being useless, because feeling useless often ends in feeling life is meaningless. Literally! Man shall not live by bread alone. Do not become an adult with all to live by but nothing to live for, with all the means but no meaning.
When you come to the cloud that will for a period, wrap your silver lining. Beware of the three brothers; depression, aggression, addiction. They come in bottles; they come as cancer sticks caked with nicotine; they come as colorful foil packed capsules. They are often one small thing that begs you indulge, just once. Beware of fleeting satisfaction. The devil is not one big demon we slay once, but the little nothing's that come dressed as pleasures to which we must constantly deny ourselves.
Your conscience is not a nagging wife, it is a cautious guide; the rudder of your ship, your inbuilt constitution. Do not murder it with constant ignoring. What a man can do once, he might do again. It is easier to curb the first desire than it will be to satisfy the one’s that will follow.
Have new experiences. Soon you will begin to forget the last time you did something for the first time. Routine and passivity sets in. Experience is as valuable as achieving. It is the inward companion to its outward counterpart. After all you keep your achievements for the world but your experiences are all you keep for yourself.
Most things in life are like fine china, you will learn this with time. They break with ease. Do not let anything that breaks leave you broken; Relationships, dreams or trust. Fear generalization, what applies to some does not apply to all.
You were not made to be perfect. Adulthood comes with a bucket of excuses where you can pick when you go wrong. “The devil made me do it?”, “It’s because of the bad economy”, or my favorite “I had to do it”…. stop it! You can be wrong, you will be wrong. Explain but do not excuse. Take responsibility. Seek forgiveness and forgive yourself.
Finally, never forget you don't live once. You live daily through your good decisions, and die daily still by the bad ones. Believe in faith, but leave nothing to chance. In the words of Viktor E. FrankL “if you must howl with the wolves remain a sheep in wolves clothing”.
