9 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me in 1990 (When I Was 19)

1. Don't worry so much about what your parents think -- they secretly want you to be free and frolic in streams and make love and find God and pursue your dreams.

2. That being said, maybe invest $10,000 in Apple Computer stock. It can't hurt.

3. Don't hold on so tightly. To anything, really. Listen to your instincts about friends, lovers, schools, and jobs. It's the very best info you have.

4. Your Dad dies in 2013. But don't worry, by then you resolve all your conflicts with him and are very, very close.

5. Interact from your heart -- it's the only place from which anyone can truly connect.

6. Enjoy your hair, now. I'm just saying.

7. When you visit a house where small children live, do not, under any circumstances, use the bathroom hand towel.

8. You are right in suspecting that you are very special. In fact, you might just be a part of God.

9. So, too, is everyone else.

Brian Leaf, MA, is author of the memoirs Misadventures of a Parenting Yogi and Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi.