Advice is Best Served with Water
It is the magical Back to School season so many of my compatriots in the Personal Finance Blog world have taken it upon themselves to pass on sage advice to the future leaders of our world. The advice given is very good and I wish someone had told me some of this advice before I started off at University, but then again, I most likely wouldn’t have listened (after all I was much smarter back then).
Aside from, “A fool and his parsnip are soon baked”, I really don’t have anything to add to the advice to future Post Secondary students, but I can give a piece of advice that my Father gave me the day before I left for school, which I actually used, and still use to this day (no it has nothing to do with money). I offer this slice of life story to those about to send their children off to school, as a helpful parenting hint (feel free to either use it, or ignore it).
Best Back to School Advice Ever
As I sat in my room packing up the last bits and pieces before I got ready to go to University (back in 1980), there was a knock on my door, it was my Father.
He sat down at the end of my bed and asked if I thought I had everything I needed for school, and I said I thought I had most of it, and that anything I forgot I am sure I could figure out how to live without it for a short period of time.
My Father told me that he was the first person in his family to go to University, so he didn’t really know what to expect, and he was, at the time, quite worried, however an Uncle of his who had gone off to College (but hadn’t finished) did give him one piece of advice that he thought might be worth passing on to me.
At this point I was absolutely enthralled, this was the first time I had felt my Father was actually talking to me like an Adult, and now he was going to pass on to me advice that hopefully will make me as successful as he was in University. I sat quietly and asked him, what that advice was.
My Father looked at me and after a short pause told me the following amazing advice:
If you have gone out drinking, have at least two large glasses of water before you go to bed.
I sat there completely confused. My Father’s advice wasn’t how to apply yourself, or some great trick on how to succeed, how could this be?
I finally blurted out, “What about school?”.
His response again was quite succinct, but also quite good advice, “Well, don’t be an idiot, study hard that’s why you are going!”.
I must say that I did most definitely use my Father’s advice on re-hydrating before going to bed after going out drinking, and his comment about studying hard also resonated more than once, when I couldn’t motivate myself, so as advice I have received in my life, I believe this is one of the best I have received.
So what advice did you receive when you went off to University or left home? Comments welcomed.
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