Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice 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, nevermind, you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way 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 as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday 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 jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind… the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
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 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary… whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either –- your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can… don’t be afraid of it, or what 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 don’t follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings; they’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because 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 hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do, you’ll 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 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’re 40, it will look 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, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen…
Ese fue Baz Luhrmann, haciendo un hit a partir de algo publicado en el Chicago Tribune. (Pondría los correspondientes links, pero me da flojera). También está I could be the one, de Donna Lewis:
I could be your sea of sand
I could be your warmth of desire
I could be your prayer of hope
I could be your gift of everydayI could be your tide of heaven
I could be a hint of what’s to come
I could be ordinary
I could be the oneI could be your blue eyed angel
I could be the storm before the calm
I could be your secret pleasure
I could be your well wishing well
I could be your breath of life
I could be your European dream
I could be ordinary
I could be the oneI would lie here in the darkness
I would lie here for all time
I would lie here watching over you
Comfort you
Sing to youI could be your worry partner
I could be your socialite
I could be your green eyed monster
I could be your force of light
I could be your temple garden
I could be your tender hearted child
I could be ordinary
I could be the oneI would lie here in the darkness
I would lie here for all time
I would lie here watching you
Comfort you
Sing to youWill I ever change the journey
Will the hushed tones disappear
Oh little Rita
Let me hold you
Oh little Rita
Let me love youI could be your leafy island
I could be your thunder in the clouds
I could be your dark enclosure
I could be your romantic soul
I could be your small begining
I could be your soothing universe
I could be your ordinary
I could be the one
Y Snow Patrol, Chasing cars:
We’ll do it all, everything, on our own
We don’t need anything or anyoneIf I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me
And just forget the worldI don’t quite know how to say how I feel
Those three words are said too much
They’re not enoughIf I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me
And just forget the world
Forget what we’re told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that’s bursting into lifeLet’s waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads
I need your grace
to remind me
to find my ownIf I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me
And just forget the world
Forget what we’re told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that’s bursting into lifeAll that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes
They’re all I can see
I don’t know where
Confused about how as well
I just know that these things
Will never change for us at all
———————————-
Claro que nada de ésto tiene sentido alguno sin escuchar los tracks correspondientes. Pero quise ver esas lyrics en mi blog (enmarcadas en los horrendos salpicones de espanglish). Buena suerte, lector.
