10 pieces of advice to your teenage self

I use to listen and go along with what others said usally leading where I imagined it would. More often than not if I followed my gut things would have worked out better.

For the most part you're degree means nothing. Is it still worth going and learning to animate? Maybe, but paying for a course online may lead to better results and you'll be able to make friends with those already in the industry.

For some reason I was under the impression that I shouldn't date unless I was sure I wanted to marry her and spend the rest of my life with her. Being blinded by the obvious fact that dating is about finding out if you're both a good fit for each other. Darting the start of the process not the end.

Like a lass? Ask her out. Have fun. Chances are you'll enjoy a few dates have fun and eventually realise you're not a good fit, but just because the end sucks doesn't mean you should miss out on all the great times before that.

Endings always suck. If we let them determine our life we'd do nothing.

Ideas list. A journal or working on a project. I hated writing so just getting myself to do one would be great. Writing helps improve your thinking. Learn to simplify sentences. Remove anything that isn't needed. Write out your thoughts and clear your head. Work a little each day on your stories. You don't need to start of perfect. Start of rubbish and keep working away at it till it's bad. Then not very good. Soon it will be OK. Eventually you'll reach something quite good and before you know it you'll have something you're proud to share with the world.

You love comedy and you have the potential to be funnier than most comedians you see on TV (and if you think they're bad. Just wait until you see who's on TV when you're older. Terrible). You'll probably suck, but like I said before I'd you keep working away you'll be writing comedy gold in no time.

These times seem like they'll be with you forever, but they're gone in a blink of an eye. Take photos/videos and appreciate the times spent doing nothing. You get all this for free adults work hard for a long time to appreciate the same experiences.

Remember when you where younger and you'd read about technology, dinosaurs, horrible history and world records? Then teachers started to push you to read boring stories that could be experienced much easier by watching the movie, why? Well, you still don't like reading stories, but you love learning non fiction is great. I've learned how to be happier, how to think better, how to persuade. Endless knowledge can be learnt from books. So whatever you're intrested in read up and learn more about it.

You never know when will be the last time you do any particular thing. Is today the last time you log onto your favourite game? Is today the last day you talk to that girl you like? Is today the last day you see this person? You'll experience a lot of last moments and you'll not relise that they where until your older. We don't know when they'll come, but we can live with peace if we know we ended them on a happy note.

You'll forget most of what is being taught not long after taking your exams. So don't stress about memorising you'll never need to use most of it anyway. Understanding why X =25 m/h can lead you to programing a racing game. Understanding perspective can lead you to making great films. Understanding grammar can help you get a job teaching English in another country.

Understand and you'll go far beyond those who memorise.

It's hard when you're a teen to embrace failure and seek it out, but if you do you'll learn a lot faster. If you can seek out others who are failing and learn from them even better. Fail, learn, repeat. You'll quickly become great at whatever you're doing.