14 Jul 2021 | 1

Because Back To The Future is my fave flick, I daydream on the regular of what I'd do differently if I could hop into the DeLorean with Marty and Doc. 

Funnily enough, I always come back to my teen years. See, I wouldn't mind shaking my past self a little bit. There were things she could have been doing that would have made a world of difference now. But hey, if I can't go back in time, maybe I can shake you a lil' bit.

So baby let's get shaky after school ooohhh, there you ohhh, there you... wasn't that a tune back in the day. Bless. Alright, let's get into it.

1. Experiment with fashion

Clothes aren't everything and consumerism is no bueno, buuuut, fashion is fab way to express yourself to the world. Don't you feel funkier when you're wearing your fave t-shirt or the most flattering pair of jeans? 

I was a fashion pleb and couldn't be bothered to experiment with style. I just wanna tell my past self to send it a little more! Wear those wild pants, dye your hair pink, buy a 70s statement coat, diy those old cowboy boots... Just go wild - who cares what others think?! You could be setting trends without even knowing it.

2. Read (because it makes you hot)

My fave quote from my pal George. R. R. Martin is; "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.".

Reading will make you hot, and you can't fight me on that one. Don't let school ruin reading for you - Hop onto Goodreads and find a book you're interested in. If only I read Joan Didion, Charles Bukowski, Eve Babitz, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Wolf and Hermann Hesse when I was a teen... Man, I would have been switched on, self-aware, more empathetic, knowledgable, and honestly... could have dominated the world.

Read fantasy. Sci-fi. Fiction. Non-fiction. Read memoirs and poetry and classics. Read books on things you want to understand. Read books from people who you wanna be like.

3. Drive

I am 22 and I still don't have my license. I blame my teenage self for not putting in the effort to drive because as soon as I finished school, I moved out of home and didn't have my 'rents to teach me (and driving lessons are the price of Jesus' tears! I can't afford a million of those)... Seriously. Learn how to drive.

4. Cook

Speaking of moving out of home, when I left the nest, I was the biggest kook in the kitchen.

Ask your 'rents to teach your how to cook. Learn how to cut veggies, what veggies to fry first, and what seasoning makes them taste banger. Learn how to make what you like to eat! Learn how to be nutritious. Learn to cook... Because seriously, living on 2 min noods for years after moving out was a neg.

5. Hang with the creators 

Living out of home, far away from my 'rents, I cringe thinking about all the days I'd come back from school. Dad would ask "how was your day?", I'd grunt "good", grab some cereal, go into my room and shut the door.

Cringe, cringe, ohhhh the cringe. 

Talk to your 'rents, your grandparents and your siblings. Take your mum to dinner and your dad to a surf museum. Ask your parents about life when they were your age (they'll have some hilarious stories, trust me). Get to know them, because above being your 'rents, they're people too. Give them the time of day as you would to a mate. 

Anyways, enough shaking! Go forth and dominate the world.