5 Things I Wish I'd Known When I Was Younger
I turned 40 years old in March. There's something about turning 40 that makes you feel like life is passing you by. I don't know if anyone else has this feeling, but for me, it has made me think of all the things I meant to do that now seem unreachable.
After all, 40 is obviously too old. I'm dead now. (🤣)
Seriously, though, I do feel like I have more regrets than I should have. Life isn't over, but in some ways it feels like my youth is over, and it's all downhill from here. It's led me to think about all the things I should have done differently, things I wish I had known back when I wasn't old af.
Knees aren't forever.
I've had bad knees since freshman year in high school. I fell and injured myself while working at a local pizza joint. The guy who owned it had shitty workman's comp, so the knee didn't get fixed until years later when I fell again. By that time, the knee was so fucked that there wasn't much that could make it good again.
That being said, I could have taken better care. Knees that are injured need to be cared for, or they deteriorate. I know this now. My knees are both terrible, so much so that they keep me from doing much of anything without a cane or a rollator. I'm 40 years old, with the knees of someone twice my age. It definitely contributes to the feeling of being too old to do something.
So, young Matt, take care of your knees. You're only getting two of them.
Don't buy stupid shit.
The amount of money I've spent on stupid things is astronomical. Mind-boggling, really. I won't list those things out here, that's far too embarrassing, but it isn't good. This is a lesson that I've taken much too long to learn. Only now, am I seeing the need to slow down and be more deliberate with my spending.
All the stuff that I had to have, none of it really added value to my life. The stupid little Pocket PC I had to have that cost far too much. The little shit that was supposed to revolutionize the way I worked? Yeah, none of that shit worked. Tens of thousands of dollars, maybe more, all down the drain.
If I could go back, I'd slap myself silly. Stick with the crappy 200 buck car, don't buy a new truck you can barely afford. And don't then pay that off to then trade it in on another truck. I was stupid with money for too long.
Oh, and phones. For fuck's sake, was I stupid when it came to cell phones. Even before smartphones, I thought I needed the coolest flip phone every few months. Then smartphones came out and I did the same thing. My parents knew I was an idiot and told me so. I should have listened and put that money into Apple stock or something. Definitely would be worth more than all those random smartphones that I didn't really need.
Learn to Code
I wish I would have stuck with Computer Science at MSU. I don't regret choosing History when I basically flunked out of the CompSci program, it was the right choice, but I do regret not putting more effort into trying to succeed with CompSci.
My life would be a lot different if I had done so. I don't know about better, but definitely it's a road I wish I'd gotten to explore.
Stick with Music.
I was in band back in high school. I loved making music, it is the one thing I think I was actually good at. But I didn't stick with it. I went to Uni and haven't picked up an instrument since. It's one of the reasons why I got myself a guitar. I miss making music.
I wish I'd stuck with it. I would tell myself, if I could go back, to try out for the MSU Marching Band. IDK if I would have been in good enough shape to get in, but I wish I had tried.
Get out more
I have a few friends. But I've never been a social butterfly. If I could go back and tell myself one thing, I'd try to get myself to socialize more. Make some lasting connections with people at MSU or beyond that. Because nowadays, I work from home, I have shitty knees, and most of my human interaction is online. I love my online friends, but it's not quite the same.
Wow, that all turned a bit maudlin, didn't it? I'm not as depressed as this makes me out to be. I'm a happy guy. I love my family, and I've made a good life for myself. Are there areas to improve? Yes, of course there is. Thinking about this has forced me to think about where I'm at in life, and how I can go about rectifying some of these regrets. Because, despite my horrible joke earlier, I'm not actually dead. And 40 isn't The End.
So my task for the next part of my life is to try to do things that I've always wished I had done. No sense in being 80 having the same regrets. Might as well make some new ones.
This is part of 30 in 30. I have no clue what day I'm on. 14 maybe?
