22 Things We Wish We Knew at 22

Today, our college brought in a distinguished lecture to give a talk called, "10 Things I Wish I Knew at 22." I was unable to attend, and then thought - hey, who needs what *one* person knows when I can ask over 100 intelligent women what they think?! So I asked the women on two of my Facebook groups (aka my "online friends," a running group and a working moms group) what they wished they would have known at 22. Here are 22 Things We Wish We Knew at 22:

1. Having kids will make it highly unlikely to finish school or get ahead in paying off debt. 

2. Take care of your credit - it may not seem important at 22, but you really do need it and it is hard to repair once it is bruised. 

3. The need to ask for and demand what I want, not just assume I'll be noticed and promoted. 

4. Ask more questions. I realized I could have caused a whole lot of people (including myself) a lot less work if I had just spoken up earlier and asked those critical questions earlier. 

5. Don't hide from ugliness or scariness. Meet it head-on. It will only get uglier/scarier the longer you bury it. 

6. Don't chase after titles or money. Do what you want to do or love to do. 

7. My strengths are my strengths - not my weaknesses. 

8. The importance of budgeting. 

9. How to say no. No to another shot, no to expensive dinners I couldn't afford....

10. How to love unconditionally. 

11. Choosing a different career - that I could have tailored my career around studying running or exercise. That old-fashioned print journalism would become irrelevant. That I had gone to med school, not business school. That acing the LSAT is not necessarily a good reason to go to law school. That I had picked a different degree. 

12. That life was going to turn out just fine. And harder things would be on the way. 

13. No matter how many all-nighters you pull, it in no way prepares you to be awake with a child all night. 

14. I would have told myself that I am just fine where I am at, and so is everyone else. 

15.Make yourself happy first. If you're not happy, you'll never have happy people around you. 

16. If you're doing something and you can't give it 100%, stop doing it and do what you can give 100% or more to. Don't stick with something just because you're "supposed to." 

17. Giving 100% to everything is not possible. Give up on the dream of having it all or doing it all. There will be sacrifices in life, and that is okay. 

18. Don't put off doing something or trying something because you think you can't or someone has said you can't do it. Don't back away from conflict; how you deal with it will make you stronger. 

19. Travel. 

20. No regrets! Every decision I did sculpted who I am today. Without the learning experiences, even the bad ones, I wouldn't be the same person. Everything happens for a reason. 

21. Failure is often your greatest teacher and experience. You'll learn more from it than your successes. 

22. Have that extra piece of cake.

What things do you wish you would have known when you were 22??