Tuesday 19 February 2008

Tag: Before 18

Kholoud Tagged me to list 6 things one should do before becoming 18 years old.

hmm,,, tough one,, well before 18 includes infants, children, and teens and its pre-college too, so i don't think i did hit specific actions for every category, rather than broad lines for teens.

Before you turn 18:
  1. Express yourself: Make your version of the word ART. you would not have people limiting you to what you can't do, know that you are born an artist.. draw, write, dance, make music, play a sport, do your thing. dedicate yourself to that.
  2. Play: Play all the time, its your purpose. Play, Have Fun and make Studying fun, and if anyone told you otherwise, tell them im a kid, my job is to play.
  3. Make Noise: Be a punk with a cause. you will develop an attitude sometime within your teen years and eventually you will lose it, but let it out, you must have sang zombie, crazy, nothing else matters, stuff along the lines on full volume with your friends and danced like there is no tomorrow, did sleep overs, camped, dreamt with your friends, been adventurous and crazy ...
  4. Build Useful Knowledge: change a flat tyre, jarret gas, fix a button, have good computer skills, take care of your stuff .. etc etc its good to be charmingly helpful when you dont have to (relative issue) and prove to your parents that you can take care of yourself and they dont need to worry, at least you should believe that.
  5. BE REAL/EXPLORE: you should have fairly experimented (within safe borders) : try everything till you figure out what you are about and what you like to do including forbidden stuff; choose to do or not to do them but go through the process of trying; try smoking, try dating, meet people from other schools, but also learn about Drugs, Drinking and Sex, and talking to Strangers and Self Defense, its very essential to learn thoroughly about those things before college so you won't feel naive and feel like you missed on practical knowledge or you were over protected, you won't learn it from your parents, you should not hide it from your parents neither, most preferably befriend an elder relative your parents trust, get a real world dose and know that people who choose to do these things are not wrong, they made a choice (Somewhere between 16, 17 and 18)
  6. Read; at least your Holy Book in full and set yourself to read The Bible, The Quran, and The Torah; why? because you need to understand the frame of your surrounding and realize that its a frame, you need to build your moral code, try to understand the basic meaning in scripts, respect differences and if the answers were not convincing, look into History Books. there is a huge difference between traditions and social practices related to Holy Books and the Religion itself as a script and how this will reflect on your personal life, i know, this is complicated enough, but you will have to go through that too. you'll face that in college years for sure and its always good to be prepared, read on various subjects outside your curriculm and get politically informed about your world around the age of 16. e7m e7m, it makes no sense but try to read the newspaper =D ma 7atifhamu ishi bas you will after you finish college :P

Im passing the tag to Bakkouz Devil's Mind No Angel Teacher Lady Zeinobia

8 comments:

TeacherLady said...

Done!
http://rantingsofanarabchick.blogspot.com/2008/02/6-things-to-do-before-you-turn-18.html

Thanks for including me! :)

The Observer said...

Tala? I have been wondering where have you been!! Just now discovered your new blog :). I should go fix my blog roll.

And yes reading is the best advice.

Tala said...

Thanks and you are most welcomed here Fadi :)

Anonymous said...

Loved the list! I did the six things you mentioned before even hitting 13 Hehehe :P By the time I was in Ninth grade I had read the Quran and the old and new testaments, I also tried smoking, hung on to the latter up until this age :P Sang along to Zombie, went camping and the rest of the things. Zombieeeeee zombieee zombieeheheheheh

Bas 7asseetek inno you're telling kids to have all the fun there is before they hit 18 because they won't be able to have fun at all after they become adults, 3ad bil3aks :d

Anonymous said...

Hey Hey Tala,
Thanks for tagging me but I'm sorry I can't do this, I'm just wayyto old to think back at the age of 18 hehe :P

Tala said...

Khouloud =D hehe, see thats why you are a vibrant person, this is very liberating :)

i always liked the combination of "smart and outgoing"
hmm, i wrote about playing because there is a time in your life where you shouldn't "ti7mili ham ishi", there is nothing worse than having a kid burdened with troubles, while college gheir, there are responsibilties and its not too safe or useful.

hala Bakkouz, its alright no worries, kheirha bi gheirha :)

Devil's Mind said...

Well, sorry it took me a while to answer this tag. As we agreed before, I will answer your tag on your blog :)

Well, first of all, this tag promotes herd mentality -which I stand against-, since each person is unique from another, and hence it would not be wise to make statements of what people should do... Something that our beloved churches would call blasphemy, because its their business to tell people what they must do!!

So this list is simply a statement that is based on my own personal judgment and may not be applicable to everyone.

1- Think deep: Preferably in your bed before you go to sleep. Think of what happen in your day and the lessons you can learn from your experiences on that day.

2- Have at least 3 different gf\bf's each of which lasts more than 4 months (it doesn't matter if all 3 at the same time or different times): Experience is important... Combined with point number 1 (thinking deep) would create a quality experience.

3- Have sex with someone of the opposite sex at a semi-regular basis at least for a while (thats preferred to be before 16): Again experience is important. Even if someone is homosexual, he should try sex with an opposite sex at an early age. One time is not enough, not two either. Maybe for a period of a month, having sex twice a week with a trusted friend would be best. The problem is that if you do it for once or twice, its easy to forget that experience. But repeating this several times would ensure it becomes a memorable experience.

4- Don't leave school without at least 3 friends (sex is irrelevant here): From my experience, relationships that start after going to university lack many things. Although unlikely, but you might not even get any new -real- friend in university. School times friends are priceless! [Thats also the reason I suggest having gf\bf before going to out of school, pre-college relationships in general are more pure!]

5- Consider other religions: Your birth religion might not be the right one for you. It would be good to read about other religions, and see them in depth. Don't be afraid to create your own private religion if you had to!

6- Rebel: Make sure your parents understand you are not their little angel anymore!

Tala said...

interesting Zaid, Thanks for answering the tag, 4 is very true