Things you wish you knew when you were young?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello everyone,

This sounds like an interesting thread. I will start. I wish I had more faith in myself and in my ability to be successful on my own. How about you?

Specializes in Health Information Management.
I wish I learned how to cook. Well.

It's never too late to learn! My mother never really taught me how to do anything in the kitchen, so I grew up knowing how to make three things: authentic tomato-based pasta sauces (from my father's mother), basic soups and chili, and my mom's butter cookies. I was actually curious about cooking and baking from a young age, but I felt so stupid there and I had nothing to go on, so I just stayed out of the way.

When I got into college, I had a wonderful family friend who lived in my college town. He took me to marvelous restaurants and cooked for many of his university friends, along with me. That was my introduction to the world of haute cuisine. I was petrified of trying to cook, but I loved to watch him - it was fascinating. He passed away a few years ago and I can still remember every meal he ever made for me. I will miss him for the rest of my days.

By the time I got married, I was sick of boring basic food. I started watching cooking shows - Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten and Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis. I gathered some ideas from those shows and remembered some of the things my old friend had tried to teach me. I slowly started to put things together. There were a couple of notable disasters and there are still things I just can't do properly (for some reason, I just can't get pie crust to come out right for me from scratch), but today I love to bake and cook. For me, it's a way to relax and be creative (even if I do hate having to do the dishes later!) and to show others I appreciate them. Now I'm the mom my son's classmates want to make the class snack every day! :lol2: So don't give up on the idea - it can happen at any age.

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I only needed one more recommendation, and I had no doubt she would give it to me. But I will never forget her words: "I'm not going to sign this, because I really don't think you have what it takes to make it on the yearbook staff. Why don't you try my Mass Media class in your senior year?"

And so I did, making straight A's, just as I did in her 10th grade English class, and her 11th grade Creative Writing class. Years later, I finally got on the ball. I've had two pieces published. And I plan on pursuing writing, once I'm finished with my BSN. It has always been my first interest. And I wish I didn't take her words to heart, all those years ago.

It never ceases to amaze me the crap "adults" say to children. Which reminds me of an addition to my list.

The person with the big desk and big title doesn't know everything

Stevie Wonders teacher told him he should concentrate on learning to make crafts so he could sell them to support himself ;)

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Its not WHAT you have, but WHO you have that is important!

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I wish I could of been a little harder with some people. I was a personal atm for many but never realized that until know.

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be kind to yourself

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Everyone is just as fearful of failure and humiliation as you are, those that are arrogant even more so.

You don't need to know all the answers, just how to get them.

People want to help you. Ask them. Then look up the answer.

Enjoy life.

Focus on the big picture and don't sweat the small $hit.

Work = Success. Even if you are handed something, you have to work to keep it or you will lose it. People included.

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I wish I realized earlier in my life that I don't have to be in a specific place/stage/position just to be happy. That happiness is a state of mind, that I can be happy anywhere and with $100, $10 or no dollars at all. That happiness should come within me, with an acceptance of who I am, what I can do and what I can't do. That even if I grew up with poverty and a constant lingering sense of instability, I can find it in me to love my life and everybody around me and that people and not mammon are most important in life.:)

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Specializes in Labor/Delivery, Pediatrics, Peds ER.

Originally Posted by Honey_Bee viewpost.gif

1)

I only needed one more recommendation, and I had no doubt she would give it to me. But I will never forget her words: "I'm not going to sign this, because I really don't think you have what it takes to make it on the yearbook staff. Why don't you try my Mass Media class in your senior year?"

And so I did, making straight A's, just as I did in her 10th grade English class, and her 11th grade Creative Writing class.
Years later, I finally got on the ball. I've had two pieces published. And I plan on pursuing writing, once I'm finished with my BSN. It has always been my first interest. And I wish I didn't take her words to heart, all those years ago.

It never ceases to amaze me the crap "adults" say to children. Which reminds me of an addition to my list.

The person with the big desk and big title doesn't know everything

Stevie Wonders teacher told him he should concentrate on learning to make crafts so he could sell them to support himself ;)

I couldn't agree more! I had a Chemistry teacher talk me out of Chem II because he said it was a lot of qualitative/quantitative work, which I loved, and nearly always got A's on. He said I was "too slow" at that sort of work. Yes, I had been out sick a week and fell behind, so? Wish I had not allowed him to make me feel I had no potential.

The person who talked me out of pursuing writing was my dad. He was always submitting articles and getting rejects and so he said it was the road to heartbreak. My creative writing teacher tried to get me to give up nursing and pursue writing at Oberlin, but my dad said he didn't know what he was talking about, that nursing was something I could always rely on. Still dabble in writing; nursing is my first love.

My dad also taught me that "What Ifs" are useless ruminations.

At whatever point you decide you truly want to take up abandoned pursuits, go for it!

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Specializes in Labor/Delivery, Pediatrics, Peds ER.
Notes to self...

Your "Carbon molecules can form neat Soccer balls theory" is not incorrect because your 7th grade science teacher has inflexible conceptions of "bonding angles." And no, she "won't remember" four years later when some college student who just discovered it names it after Buckminster Fuller, instead of you.

Teacher's lack of insight may have robbed us of "POTRballs" as opposed to buckyballs. Drat! Seriously, though, how sad, yet typical!

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Specializes in ICU/ER/TRANSPORT.

understood earlier in my life that you cant always be everything for everyone and to understand that when people say they are disappointed in you that they might just be disappointed in themselves in reality.

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

everyone falls downs and gets kicked in the teeth at some point.

It doesn't matter how or who kicked you but how you get yourself back up and push on through.

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Specializes in ER.

I've looked back and often asked myself this very question (damn middle age!). I've come to the conclusion that, while I could have made many better choices and not had to deal with so many issues of my own doing, I really dig the person I am now. I may not have become that person, had I not dealt with so many bad times. Sure, I might have had a big house or a nice retirement set aside by now...but that is certainly not a guarantee of being truly happy, which I am now (and totally cool! :smokin: )

One thing my younger self did tell me, through all the dark times, was "You'll be fine. You deserve better and will get it". I was right. :)

I do have one regret though. The day I allowed that damn orthodontist to do a plaster mold of my mouth for braces when I was in 7th grade. I started choking, and he and his staff held me down, forcing my mouth to stay closed (until I punched one square in the face to get free). I never got the braces, obviously. And to this day I'm still terrified of dentists and as a result, have terrible teeth. I don't regret not sucking it up, because what he did was wrong. I don't blame my parents, because it was what they could afford. But I guess I wish I had made myself go find someone else when I got older, and gotten things fixed.

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