Dear Young Woman: Wake up!

Dear young woman,

Wake up. Stop living in a fantasy world. Stop feeling entitled. Stop feeling like a victim. Stop pretending like you’re independent when your parents or lover are paying your bills. Stop faking the life you live just to impress people who don’t care about you. That after “this” (college, work, living at home, whatever “this” is) is over that you’ll suddenly have all the solutions. No one cares that you had a bad day, decided to buy a new pair of shoes instead of paying your rent, that you only made $220 working all night or that you don’t feel well because you’re not taking care of yourself. And yes, there are a lot of crappy men out there…and you’re going to come across a lot of them if you keep looking in the same places.

Note: I wrote this post because I feel some of you (not all) may benefit from my bluntness and point of view. I’m not always right and it’s perfectly fine if you don’t agree with me…in fact, challenging what others think is what Die Happy Tonight is all about. My intention is to simply light a spark for one of you. I hope I may continue with this piece. If you’ve made it this far, I’ll take that as a “yes”...

You’re becoming an adult and I’d like to share some truths on what you can expect during your 20’s and how to make the most of these amazing, important years. Yes, by all means go out and live it up! Make mistakes, in fact make a lot of them - you don’t have much to lose. Explore yourself, others and the world - now is the very best time for this. I’d also like you to consider adding these two items to your routine.

1. Be thankful.
2. Be prepared.

Be thankful. Life is a precious, delicate thing. If you have your health and live in this City, you’re already the 1% of the population. Stop counting what you don’t have and start counting what you do have. You’ll see that you’re truly blessed. Feel like you’re missing something? Go out and get it. No one is going to just give it to you. Put in the work. Make the sacrifices. Take the leap of faith. For God’s sake - Die Happy Tonight started in my apartment seven years ago.

Be prepared. This is the most important one. You are the creator of your life. The sooner you begin being responsible for yourself the more of yourself and this world you will understand, value and own. Owning your life is true freedom. It means stepping outside of your comfort zone. Becoming independent of everyone and anyone. Having your own place, your own car (and drivers license) and own source of income to pay for all of it. It means taking care of your loved ones vs. them taking care of you. It means not just saving your money but also investing your money! It means stop being short sited and start planning long term so you can set yourself up for the life you want to live…. which is many, many more years. It means becoming an adult. Whoa.

Life is hard.

It’s really fucking hard when you’re living on your own accord.

It’s not what you see in the movies or on Instagram.

So I beg you, please come back down to Earth my love. I want to see you soar like the beautiful bird that you are…just remember that even the boldest of birds spend time on the ground.

Sincerely,

Die Happy Tonight’s Founder & CEO

p.s. This is a part of series of posts dedicated to our models in hopes that this 38 year old man can shed some light on topics of self-growth, self love and thriving in this cloudy world we work in. I'm going to be super real, direct and vulnerable with you. I'm going to share advice that I take myself. Much of it from people way smarter than myself. If you disagree with anything I share, please do not hold back as I value others perspectives tremendously. I will consider what you share when writing future posts. Thank you for reading.