Things That I Have Completely Changed My Mind About Since High School

For whatever reason I was steadfast in my beliefs and opinions in high school. As a teenager there were some key beliefs I had that I thought would always ring true. Now that I am 24, I've realized I was kind of an idiot about a lot of things. Or as my dad might say, "You're a little shit." (Just kidding, he never said that. But he probably thought it. And probably still thinks it sometimes too.)

You live and you learn. It's important to realize what changed though. I've changed my mind about some fundamental things that some adults still share and even value more than they did as adolescents. This can be problematic as I changed my beliefs on these issues for very good reasons, and I am going to explain them now.

Alcohol

"Let's make bad decisions!" - something I ACTUALLY heard people say, a lot

As a teenager...
"I can't wait till I turn 21 so I can go to bars, liquor stores, and drink any time I want!"

As an adult...
I drink much less than I did before I was 21.

I am not condemning alcohol consumption by any means as I still drink and enjoy drinking. I still go to bars regularly with my friends and I find alcohol can make social situations more fun. I drink much less for four reasons: 1) I lost a good friend to drinking and driving 2) I've seen what alcoholism/addiction can do to people and it is horrible 3) I could be a nasty dickhead if I drank too much 4) I don't like vomiting.

Losing a friend to drinking and driving made drinking so much less interesting to me, because I was actually affected first hand by someone's dreadful judgement. Not that I'd get behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, but I almost always prefer being the person to stop someone else from doing it. In order for that to happen - I can't be too inebriated, or else I won't give as much of a shit. I've stopped a few people from drinking and driving since and I'm glad I did because I stopped people from making horrendous decisions.

Now that I'm out of college I've seen full fledged daily alcoholics in professional and personal settings. It's just so goddamn sad seeing people need alcohol to fulfill their lives. As I said before - I like drinking. But I never depended on it for happiness.

Getting to my next point - I can say there were several occasions where I filled up my cup too much and was a total jerk to people who didn't deserve it.

Alcohol in moderation is fine but sometimes when I over did it I let my inhibitions out and let out anger for really no good reason. I learned from those experiences though, and I'm glad I did. Aside from being a dickhead, I also really do not like vomiting - which I did a lot of when I drank too much.

Once you learn your limits you realize you don't need alcohol to party or to have fun - but it does well in moderation, which I'm fine with and you should be too. And if you're not okay with drinking in moderation and you need to get bezerkered hammered all the time - you have a problem! and should probably seek help immediately.

Politics

As a teenager...
"Libertarianism is what it's all about, man! Individual liberty! Freedom! YEAH!"

As an adult...
I am a supporter of a highly progressive tax on the rich and a staunch advocate for single-payer universal health care.

For those unfamiliar with the label "Libertarian" it's essentially the belief that individual liberty and freedom is the most important facet of a political system and that as an individual you should be allowed to do whatever you want - as long as it doesn't directly negatively affect anyone else.

This is all fine and dandy until you have a cursory knowledge of macroeconomics and realize that the world cannot stand on this belief as it would leave billions of people behind.

On an economic end Libertarians are supporters of unrestricted laissez-faire capitalism, which is something I could just not morally support. In that facet many Libertarians are firmly against public health care and view health care as a commodity rather than a public service - which disgusts me.

When I went to London to study abroad I got to see how universal health care works in person and I realized all the horror stories about long waiting periods and rationed health care were absolute bullshit. This is backed up by the fact that the United States -the only developed nation in the world without universal health care - is behind 36 other countries in life expectancy.

As an 18-year-old I spent three nights in the ICU for a near fatal acute heart condition. Had my family not had health insurance there were two options: 1) bankruptcy 2) death.

So as I touted the flag of Libertarianism when I was younger, I find it such an unsettling and selfish political philosophy that I distance myself from it completely. Lots of young dudes like to talk to me about the importance of the individual, but we can't look at people as just singular units. There's 7 fucking billion people on the planet - and whether your selfish ass likes it or not - we need to take care of every single one of them.

Relationships

As a teenager...
"I need to find 'the one'... ya know my SOUL MATE"

As an adult...
Ugh... just... no.

I really don't know where this belief came from but it probably had something to do with the fact that it was part of the central plot of Saving Silverman.

Not bad for a PG-13 comedy... honestly.

I saw a lot of my friends in high school in happy relationships and thought, "Why can't I have that? I want a person to be with me the rest of my life who will never leave me. I'm a big baby wahhhh."

It's not that I have a nihilistic view of love, like Zooey Deschanel's character in 500 Days of Summer, I just believe that the idea of having a "soul mate" when - like I said - there's 7 fucking billion people on the planet, is just a tad bit unreasonable.

Such a cruel, heartless bitch.

The truth is I very much believe in love, but in this day in age, people come and go. The fact that divorce rates have skyrocketed within the last century certainly hasn't helped, but people generally do not stay with the same person their entire lives anymore.

The biggest issue about this is that I wanted to find "the one" when I was like, 16. What the hell was wrong with me? Did I not realize that I would graduate high school probably without that person? Did I not think that I'd go to college, get a job, and move on with my life?

In any case I've gone through my young life meeting very attractive and often times wonderful young ladies. I used to think that because a girl liked the same bands as me that we were meant to be together (again, what the hell is wrong with me?).

What I've found is that love is awesome and a great opportunity to share yourself with someone who may very well care about you deeply. But I've determined that if you spend your life either only with one person, or sadly, chasing after one person - you will end up missing out on a lot.