Plan as if you’re going to live alone and learn to be self-sufficient.
Sing and dance as hard as you can in groups.
Let somebody in.
“You’re not alone. Don’t be afraid to look for others like you. They’re out there, and they will help you.”
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Hide your intelligence. People don’t like it when they think they’re not as smart as someone else, and react with hostility. Don’t raise your hand in class, get things wrong if they don’t matter, do not go above and beyond on anything, get decent but not perfect grades, keep your trap shut in school.
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Looks are the only thing that really matter. Life is very different for the unattractive, and not in a good way. No one cares if you’re funny, confident, well-read, or friendly if you’re ugly, they’ll never get close enough to you to see anything else. If you don’t make yourself attractive somehow, you’re going to spend your life completely alone. Take care of your face, your teeth, your hair, and your weight. Stop eating candy, keep your hair cut really short, brush and floss every day, and wash with something better than hand soap, and use a benzoyle peroxide wash every night.
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Friends & girlfriends are only there for you until something better comes along. People will lie to you, abandon you, take from you, cheat on you, and fuck you right the hell over should the opportunity arise. Finding someone you can really trust is damn near impossible.
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People you work for do not care about you any further than it takes to get you to work. Companies are only interested in money, and if they think they can make one more cent by firing you, your job lasts as long as it takes to write the email. While they expect perfect loyalty from you, they have absolutely no loyalty whatsoever to you.
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Your foot is going to hurt for the rest of your life. You’re going to need more surgery just on that foot than the entire rest of your family will ever have. Painkillers will do very little, and it’s going to get worse as time goes by. You will eventually have to use a wheelchair.
Right now, fifteen year old me, you think your ability to let people fall out of your life without looking back is a wonderful trait. It’s not. Ten years from now, you will look back, and see nothing but the vaguely forgotten names and faces of people you wouldn’t let in.
You are an alcoholic. I’m sorry. Save yourself an ocean of tears, pain, fear and misery. Never touch the stuff.
It’s okay to show up on the first day and not know what you’re doing. No one else knows either.
Your sexuality will be as confusing to you at 28 as it is right now. This is okay. You’re just generally kinda queer, and you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone.
All the people in your life who told you that loving people wasn’t worth it were wrong.
Make sure you stay in touch with Alex Hoyos. When you look back on those memories of vague names and faces, his will stand out clear, and one day, you’ll want to tell him you loved him.
Get on The Pill. Now.
Go ahead and go to nursing school after high school. You’re not bad at science, you’re just better at English. But your science skills are perfectly adequate for nursing school. Mom doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be a nurse, she just means it’s awesome you don’t HAVE to be a nurse, like women did in her day.
Keep active in theater. Maybe not professionally, but keep auditioning in community stuff. Especially musical theater - turns out you only have a fantastic metabolism when you keep dancing.
Move away from your hometown when you’re in your 20s. No, further away. If you stick around too long, your mom will be old and alone and you’ll feel too guilty to leave. If you leave when she’s still young and active, she’ll develop another support system. And if you decide to move back to her area when she’s in her 60s, at least you won’t regret not seeing what the world has to offer first.
You, and all your friends - even the “fat one” - are fucking gorgeous. No, people don’t just say that to be nice. Your thighs are not fat. They will be someday, if you don’t stay active, though.
15 year old me wouldn’t take a word of this advice. But 38 year old me would feel better sharing it.
- In about a year, you will start feeling depressed. Get help, as soon as possible. Your parents mean well, and they will help you get help. If you don’t do this, it will ruin much of your youth.
Everything else follows from that, really…
- Along the same lines, there’s no reason to be so eccentric. It’s not conformist to be friendly and “normal.” You do want to be around people, and misanthropy is unattractive. You’re not asexual, and don’t be sad about being heterosexual.
Be more brutal in those fights. Eventually, they’ll leave you alone if you hit them hard enough and often enough.
You want your 15 year old self to spend even longer being bitter?
Would it be better to know these things ahead of time, or to be surprised by them later one by one?
Numbers 1, 2 and 3 aren’t true, though. It would be better to have negative experiences and learn from them, than become bitter and think that everything in the world is shit.
Maybe for you they’re not. These are just things I’ve learned.
15 was a bad, bad year for me, so:
“Sweetheart, I know it hurts right now, but I promise you, it will get better. Not right away, and there are times when you’ll doubt if you’ll ever feel happy again, but there’s a truly wonderful life awaiting you, so just hang on in there. It will be worth it”.
I’ve had my ups and downs in life just live everyone else. The old saying is true - “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% what you make of it.” And with that I’ll conclude this hijack. 
Don’t start smoking (I was 15 when I started).
In relation to what Si Amigo keeps saying, Get. A. Clue. and learn to notice when a girl is interested in you. Though, honestly, I’m 47 now, and if any woman is currently interested in me I’m unaware. The only women I’ve ever managed to get halfway “serious” with have been the ones who have come right out and told me (by direct, or indirect means) that they were interested. I don’t pick up on subtle social clues.
Let’s see… oh yeah. When your knees go out while training for the high school Cross Country running team, insist that Mom & Dad take you to the doctor, even though the pain went away after a couple of days. Dad’s job provides good health insurance. Get those knees fixed now. Maybe now they only bother you when you run, but when you get into your 30s and 40s, they’re going to be bothering you all the fucking time.
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Stop eating junk food, start eating healthy food and learn to exercise. You won’t start taking care of yourself until you are 22 after the stomach flu detoxes your system.
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When you move out and quit school at 17 don’t move in with your boyfriend. You will spend the next 3 years being treated like garbage and living in constant fear.
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Stop being so kind to people. You will get royally fucked over - both financially and emotionally - over and over again. You will lose thousands of dollars because you help people out of the goodness of your heart who don’t deserve or appreciate it. Grow a spine and learn how to tell people to fuck off.
I disagree with this bit. In my experience, financial help is usually a disaster, so when friends and family come to me for money, we work to find the root cause of the problem. Usually, it’s not so much a lack of money as an unwillingness to deal with the real problem, so they throw money at it. Then when they run out, they start throwing other people’s money at it.
True, sometimes they still don’t want to address the problem, and say “Just shut up and give me some money!” Hard to believe, but I don’t feel guilty about not helping them out.
Stop coming up with lame reasons to avoid developing relationships with girls. You’re going to get rejected some, you’re going to stumble some, you’re going to be disappointed some, but so fucking what. You will look back and endlessly regret not taking these chances, especially with Michelle. Look how she looks at you! And she’s beautiful! And you’re crazy about her! :smack:
Get more involved with school. Don’t wait until your 30th reunion. Your classmates are fun!
Take an active role in choosing your college education. Nobody else is going to do it for you and you’ll otherwise really drop the ball here.
Take every possible advantage of that new job at the batting cages. And field ground balls. You’ll stop being afraid of them.
Don’t stop asking just because some people say no sometimes.
And stop procrastinating! (Oh wait, that’s the advice my 15-year-old self is supposed to give to his 47-year-old self!)
I mean to stop procrastinating, but I just can’t seem to get around to it. 
You don’t have to enter a long term relationship with every girl who seems interested. Also, the pain and discomfort in the break up is not as bad as you fear, and sometimes needs to be done sooner rather than later. And never, never, go back.
I’d like to point out to my 15 year old self that the guys I hung out with are much better people than the guys I dated. Also, it would probably be wise to go with WhyNot to pick up some birth control.