Quora is fun and being an avid Quoran I won’t miss any chance of sharing the answers. So, one day while scrolling down my Quora feed I came across this very intriguing question raised by a 21 year old.
To re-frame the question it said, “What things should I learn at 21 that will help me now and later in life?”
What are we? Not a bunch of super-heroes but something beyond that definitely. We are full of energy, enthusiasm and great ideas and it from here that the nurturing of a future leader begins. Hence, there are a few things that a 21 year old should implicitly learn at this age. So let me list down a few points that I found were really important to learn at this age.
Courtesy: I am 21 too!
Here are 8 things which I learnt being a 21 year old:
1. Let go off your past: “Past is a prologue”, sounds good but not always true. This is that time of our lives when the emotion begins to slide in again within us. Your past will definitely try to engulf back and prevent you from moving ahead in life, but you need to move on. So, let go off the mistakes and the terrible past if you had and think of the coming years.
2. Listen to your parents:At this age of 21 our hormones try to deceive us. It is that phase of life when you have just come out of your lovely teenage years and suddenly stepped into a real world. We think decision making is no big deal and sometimes tend to make wrong ones too. This is the phase when we become ignorant of what our elders say to us, because we are so much into our career plans and other things that we definitely ignore the care and concern coming from our parents. Thus, listen to your parents because they have passed this age and know what is right and wrong. You definitely will have to do what suits you the best but then listening to them and taking their piece of advice does no harm.
3. Travel: “Travel as much as you can. As far as you can. Life is not meant to be lived at one place”. We are young and full of energy. We have desires and brave ideas. We can risk it all. Don’t miss a chance to step out and explore the world, because when you grow older, your payslips won’t make you happy but the moments captured while exploring the world will. So, take a chance and do crazy things, go on adventure trips, be a part of a trekking expedition. wander in the mountains and feel the nature. Don’t stop at one place.
4. Interact with strangers on your way: I don’t know how people would react to this but I love interacting with strangers on my way to home or college or anywhere. Interaction doesn’t always means adding them up on all your social accounts. Sometimes, it means having a real genius conversation and getting to know their culture and traditions. We have this tendency of being hooked on the internet all the time to learn something new. We never really bother to interact with the person sitting next to us for the past 12 hours in a flight or train. Human race was not supposed to be that anti-social, I believe.
5. Write diary/journals:This is something I love doing personally. Pick up a diary and maintain an account of your day to day life and if not that then pen down something valuable that you come across in your day to day life. Trust me, you will love reading it as years pass by. Write down all the beautiful memories and keep them safe in this one place. Write about your travel experiences and everything else that makes you happy.
6. Make a to-do list every morning and a bucket list for future: Keeping life a bit organized is something we should learn at this age. Write down all the important things that you need to achieve in that particular day and then you are unstoppable. Be organized when it comes to your goals and tasks. Maintain a book that contains all the stuff that you desire to do. Trust me, it will clear your goals and you will stay more focused in achieving that. Your bucket list did not necessarily be ‘meeting Mr. Obama’, but it can be as simple as ‘watching Sherlock’.
7. Be optimistic: We might face hurdles now but being positive in all the situations will keep us going. Don’t give up on your dreams just because your idea was criticized. Accept criticism constructively even if it’s not that constructive and build upon the broken links. Stay calm in situations that demand anger.
8. Control temptations: This is that phase in life when we are lured by many objective and materialistic things, and in that process we usually end of doing wrong things. Hence, always have a control over your feelings and desires. Desire what is right and learn to differentiate between what is right for you and what is not, because later in life you would be glad that you made the right choice by resisting.
I can possibly go on writing more as there are n number of things that we can learn right now. But then again it all narrows down to our conscience.
Beyond Diaries 
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