Ive been thinking lately about my life, and ways to improve it. I would love to hear what you guys think about your lives, mistakes you made and what you would do differently if you had a second chance. To preface, I am 23 years old now, here’s a short autobiography of myself.
I grew up in a pretty average house in a lot of regards, but I really struggled with my sister, and later on my father. As a child I was told every day that I was ugly, at the time I didn’t think this affected me at all, but it certainly did. I had some pretty big self esteem issues, and as a result I secluded myself in our basement and just used the computer all day. I can remember wishing as a child to “just grow up and be average in life”. I thought I would be happy if I could just grow up to be average looking and hold an average job with an average wife/family.
I had always prided myself on my smarts and ability to play sports well, and really to succeed at just about anything I tried. All through school I could get 70’s in my classes without ever studying, or reading the textbooks, and even without attending a lot of the classes and never doing homework. With that being said I dont think there was ever a time when I actually did those things so I never did get good grades. I still dont hold those habits going into my 4th year of university. I was held back a year in high school because I simply skipped way too much.
I have never gone after girls because I was always self conscious of myself. I had some good friends in the last year of school and I wound up meeting my first girlfriend at the age of 18. Or rather her friends set me up with her. We dated for a while but we essentially both simply lost interest in each other. We never had sex, I was too nervous/unsure how to proceed about it. I think that’s what ended it haha…
We broke up the summer before university, and then my parents got divorced. My sister also moved out at this time, which essentially removed almost all of the stresses from my home life. It was also this time that I began seeing some old friends a lot more often, and I honestly dont know where I would be without them at this point (probably still secluding myself on the computer). I went into university with a good attitude, I wasn’t super popular but I made a group of good friends, and actually read the textbooks for the first time in my life. I did great in first year, but as the semesters went by I became less and less excited by this whole new environment, and saw the hour long trip to school as a hassle. I started skipping classes, and therefore losing a lot of my networking chances that I should have been exploiting. I eventually got put on academic suspension and am now taking night school classes to pass the time before I can apply to resume my studies.
As it turns out I am (and was) actually a pretty good looking guy, I have got a lot of confidence compared to back then, though maybe still a bit less than the average. Ive matured a hell of a lot since high school, but I’m looking for some advice on how to “grow up”. I want to find ways to become more passionate about my goals, and maybe advice on women also. I am “the friend”, probably because I am never overtly sexual around women (this is VERY slowly changing with time). I honestly have no clue how to woo women, and I have still not had a girlfriend since high school.
I would love to hear stories about your lives growing up, and what you would do different knowing what you know now. Do you have any sagely advice or quips you would like to share with me? Tips on networking, women?
Thanks for reading, honestly. This is just one of the ways I’m trying to prevent my mistakes from happening again. I really feel like I wasted my childhood when I reflect on it.
