Advice

In this brief time sandwiched between Mother's Day and Father's Day, and with graduates tossing their caps, it's a good time to think about advice and the maxims our parents shared with us. As adults, we are now charged less with the asking of advice and more with the dispensing of it.
I couldn't immediately remember specifics from my mom or dad, so asked my sister. She remembered our dad telling her not to worry about things she couldn't control. "He told me this the night before my first day as a crossing guard. I was so worried about how I would get to school on time, how to hold the sign since I was too short to reach the top like the other crossing guards, etc. that I couldn't sleep and was crying."
Nora's dad used to tell her when she was worried about a test or something, "I'll blow up the building", which broke the ice and made her laugh. And I guess it's a way of re-evaluating the situation-- is it really so important to worry about? When I would worry about my grades in college, Nora didn't tell me she would blow up a building, but she did tell me to go to office hours and would remind me, "don't worry, the professors have seen worse than you."
Sometimes our parents' advice is contradictory. ET#1's parents told her, "If you get in trouble with a boy, don't come home." But my mom, as she shipped me off to BU told me, "When you get there, head straight to student health for birth control."
My mom also frequently told us not to do a half ass job. Usually this applied to cleaning the kitchen, the one chore Liz and I were to do everyday. But it's certainly stuck with me and if anything, I feel guilty when I don't wipe the crumbs off the counter.
The other best advice my mom gave was to never leave the house without makeup. She gave me makeup for my 8th grade graduation and the times are few and far between that I leave the house without at least lipstick or mascara. It's not just the makeup-- it's putting your best face forward. When she went into labor with me, she didn't leave for the hospital until she had put on eyeliner (and this was the 70s, when eyeliner was a big deal).
Finally, my mom told me to ALWAYS have a job. Not only a good way to get money, but a good way to manage time. Since I was 14, I've always held a job (with the exception of freshman year of college and I got in big trouble for that one).
So as my friends have children of their own, I hope to be able to share some good advice. Or at least help them apply mascara.