Thirty Thoughts Before Your Thirties

[[This is written to be especially applicable for high school graduates but the points apply to us all.]]

1. Don’t forget about God and your personal convictions. You could gain the world, popularity and an inconceivably high GPA, but if you forfeit your soul it profits you nothing. In Jesus alone is there abundant life.
2. Be in Christian community. Go to church. Read your Bible. Pray. Sing songs of praise to God.
3. Talk to your pastor or spiritual mentor. Let them know when you have questions or are struggling with something.
4. Have a personal development plan and record your goals and how you’re going to get there. And then do those things.
5. Exercise. Just do it.
6. Work ahead when possible.
7. Do fun stuff but don’t be stupid. Always consider the possible consequences of your actions.
8. Have fun but make the most of your time. For instance, maybe turn off Candy Crush and don’t binge-watch as much Sponge Bob, or whatever. Maybe even turn the Internet off every once and awhile. It’s won’t be gone forever, I promise.
9. Have fun. Although it feels difficult these are probably the funniest and easiest years of your life.
10. Build relationships. Build relationships with your peers but also with professors, advisors, and bosses. Network (but not just for the purpose of networking. Actually care about people). And meet new people, different people. Say hi to people that you normally wouldn’t say hi to.
11. Explore your interests and abilities. As you consider the future, keep an open mind.
12. Ask questions and ask for help (in all sorts of settings).
13. Learn about finances. Make a budget. Learn about investing. Don’t take out a loan unless you really have to.
14. Get there ten minutes early and leave ten after. Talk to your professor or boss and listen to the questions that your peers have. 
15. Stop your horrible habits now, don’t wait.
16. Write things down (your schedule, thoughts, wishes, dreams, and the occasional poem). Your brain dumps its memory every night, your phone or notebook doesn’t.
17. Ask questions. Interact with the content you’re being taught. Share your opinions (though, not in an obnoxious know-it-all way)
18. Read the syllabus. Love the syllabus. Live and die by the syllabus.
19. Call your parents and siblings (if you have them).  
20. Prioritize! Don’t procrastinate! If you prioritize well you have more room to procrastinate.
21. Love learning for the sake of learning, not just for the grade. A love for learning will serve you better than your GPA.
22. Chose your friends wisely.
23. Chose your “special someone” wisely.
24. Enjoy the work you do even if you don’t enjoy it.
25. Remember one side sounds right until you hear the other. This is a proverb that holds true in all areas
26. “I read it on the internet” doesn’t equal truth (even if you see the same thing in a few places).
27. Relativism is actually harmful. Unless there is objective truth, the exhortation for people to be kind (e.g. planet care, respecting others, and not harming others) is subjective and relative to the whim of individuals (and thus doesn’t really need to be heeded).*
28. Read books. Read blogs, read news articles, but let the biggest part of your diet be books, especially old books that have stood the test of time.
29. Do your work. Your professor should know what they’re doing. So, do the work that they assign.
30. Keep your own list. Remember what you have learned and pass it on.

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*”To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis on which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights” (Timothy Snyder, *On Tyranny*).