Give me any life advice and tips!

Hey there,

I'm pretty new here, so forgive me. I'm thirteen years old and face the challenge of Grade 5 ABRSM Saxophone in two months because my mother paid the £94 before consulting me. I have a good 25 hours of studying minimum.

[Quick cut to the chase here, give me study tips for any subject, fun-facts and general information/ resources you think are useful or underestimated]

This is after 2 years of learning from scratch (kill me), a lot of performance experience with the school, and getting showed up by the private school children in a festival!

I realise now that I'm in an absurdly prime position for learning a lotta stuff. I'm young, I've got a lot of time, and I've got teachers who like me.

Before you tell me to enjoy my youth, I do! I have 4 hours of non-school interaction with friends per week absolute minimum and I do a lot of walking and general forest exploring. I just have a squirrel brain. I cannot begin to describe the helplessness I feel when I don't have a clear goal, don't feel like I'm learning, or feel like what I'm doing is useless. For example, I was scrolling YouTube video-essays aimlessly. I felt horrible. I make a playlist with my Grade 5 pieces, and as I listen to them I feel better because god I'm doing something!

(yes I have been called high special needs by members of staff)

I'm curious to hear your own life advice, experiences, questions or whatever. It's a win-win. I get information, you get to, uhh, feel like you're contributing to the younger population of society? Studying options? Regrets? How to cook a pretzel in a microwave?

Literally anything you want to unload vaguely related to study, learning and being a huma.

Reply 1

PinkMobilePhone

Chat Forum Helper, Life & Style Forum Helper

Well I can tell by reading your post that you're in absolutely zero danger of failing GCSE English.

Let's see, what advice can I give a thirteen year old with a curious mind...?

1) always keep a flat headed toilet plunger in the house. FLAT specifically.

2) there are many paths through life. If things don't work out according to some plan or other that you initially made, make a new one and carry on.

3) never pull a hang nail.

4) never borrow money unless it's absolutely essential, and even then keep it to the minimum possible and pay it back as quickly as you can.

5) never lend money unless you can afford to lose it.

6) find a balance between preparing for the future, and living as though today is your last. That's trickier than it sounds.

7) spend time with your loved ones as often as you can. The older you get, the more of them you will lose.

8 ) human beings are ego-centric, therefore other people are not thinking about you, so don't be self-conscious or shy. Other people are thinking about their own lives - they don't care if your hair is messy, or what you're wearing, or whether you have said something silly... it's just not important to them. So live without worrying about what people think of you.

9) it is never, ever, too late to follow your dreams. Where there's life, there's hope.

10) don't wash any red or pink clothes with anything white or pale.

11) wear comfortable shoes. In fact just wear comfortable clothes in general. Your body doesn't care about fashion, and it certainly won't thank you for stuffing it into something painful for the sake of aesthetics.

12) get enough sleep.

13) always be true to yourself. Never change to please other people.

14) anything else I haven't covered, you'll find Baz Lurhmann has already mentioned. (Search for 'Everybody's free to wear sunscreen'.)