10 Things In Life You’ll Have Realized Before You Hit 20

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1. How much it takes to hold your drink.

Let’s be real. At some stage throughout your mid-late teens, you experienced the ultimate shame of realizing that it’s not possible to drink a whole bottle of vodka in one night and be okay. You feel that hangover and it’s truly awful.

2. That your first boyfriend is not your ‘4eva and 3va bby.’

We’ve all had that cringeworthy crush throughout high school we believed was “love at first sight.” All I can say is thank god most of us learned that lesson pretty early in life! Thinking back on it, I’m happy my first gawky looking crush wasn’t forever and ever.

3. Leaving important things to the last minute is always a bad idea.

I remember when my 10th grade math teacher said, “Old habits die hard,” when I told him I would only study during “senior year – when it count.” Well, I should have listened to him. It’s safe to say years of built up disorganisation, frequent lateness, and an extreme inability to concentrate got the better of me. I’m sure most of you too have learned that cramming the morning of an exam never ends well. #hellosupexam

4. Some people in life are just bloody psycho.

We all have had that friend who is nice, funny, and good looking…until we peel back to the inner layers to discover an unstable, narcissistic brat.

5. To vigilantly check what gets shown on our social media profiles.

We’ve all had a moment when we’ve bailed on a friend to see a different friend and awkwardly had to deal with the consequences of being discovered via Facebook or Snapchat.

“Oh yeah this was organised really last minute!” we’ve had to sheepishly splutter (or type).

6. If you lend money, you aren’t always gonna get it back.

“I can’t ask for that $10 back a THIRD time!”

We’ve all thought before accepting the fate we ain’t ever seeing that money again. Purpose or not? People forget, I’ve done it too. I’m glad this is a lesson learnt relatively early in life and is something that just needs to be accepted sometimes. Plus, if you’re good friends, you get it back in other ways!

7. Not everybody thinks the way you do – and that’s okay!

We have all had moments when we disagree with others, but what about when it comes to things we are really really passionate about? I have lots of friends who have conflicting views about many topics. It’s good to learn that not all people think like you and that’s fine (in most cases). I say take the opportunity to learn from them and understand where they are coming from! It’s mind opening and you don’t have to agree with them.

8. Getting high isn’t like what we thought it was.

I remember thinking, “Huh that’s it?” the first time I smoked pot. When I was a kid, it was hyped up so much in movies and at school that I thought it was a really intense, addictive, evil thing. Now I think we all know that it’s pretty harmless.

9. Most of the time our parents are right (admit it)!

Remember that time your mom told you to take an umbrella and you didn’t? Enough said.

10. We are capable of so much more.

I think before most people hit 20 they realize, “Wow I really need to do something with my life.” Whether it was failing an exam or not making a sports team, I think we’ve all had that moment when we were disappointed with our own performance. AND WE KNOW IT’S SIMPLY BECAUSE WE DIDN’T PUT IN AS MUCH EFFORT AS WE COULD HAVE!

We know deep down, if we put in 100 percent, we are capable of pretty much anything. I think that scares us the most knowing that we might not try hard enough. Who wants to be mediocre, right?