What should every 22-year-old know?

Now is generally a time where you feel you should have done something by now, but at the same time have not have a chance to do anything yet.
— Monsterzz

Do not take your body or your health for granted. You need your teeth, arteries, lungs and joints to last you the rest of your life. Treat them with the respect they deserve for keeping you alive, and perhaps that life will be long and healthful. Source: am in late thirties, just threw my back out by coughing
— bakemeawaytoys

Take care of your health. Take care of your sanity. Take care of the relationships that matter most to you. Enjoy experiences throughout life and be ready to learn. Try not to turn down interesting experiences.
— ElusivePineapple

You owe your employer nothing. If you need to leave, leave. If you need your own time, don't feel pressured to work overtime. If they push the law on what's legal, take legal action. Try to be as friendly and helpful as possible, but take care of yourself first and don't let that friendliness get in the way or prevent you from doing what's right. Learn from my mistakes.
— GoabNZ

Their drinking limit. The day I learned when to cut myself off so I could still be loose and have a good time but not yakking all over the place when I got home was the greatest day of my 20s.
— PunchBeard

It has been said already, but I believe it needs to emphasized more, which is: find a job/career that will ALLOW you to be happy. Of course, there are jobs/careers out there that will MAKE you happy, but I assume that the majority of occupations will involve some factor that will make a person unhappy (long hours, time away from loved ones, perhaps strenuous manual labor, ect.). However, if you can find an occupation that will allow you to focus on the things in your life that already make you happy, I say go for that. A persons happiness is everything, despite how oversimplified that may seem. Life will take a 180 degree turn when a person finds them self in a job that not only requires the entirety of their day, but requires the entirety of their mind as the workload never ends and causes a person to stress even when off work. Pursue happiness.
— AyBake

Generally, things won't get better unless you make them better. At the end of the day, you need to take responsibility for yourself. Sometimes you'll be on the fortunate end of good luck, and sometimes you'll be on the unfortunate end of bad luck. Set goals. Work on them a little bit every day. Make the life you want and don't wait for it to be handed to you because chances are, it won't be handed to you. edit: I'm 23. This advice is what I get from most people older and wiser than myself. I have to remind myself of this on a daily basis.
— jacobra94

It gets exponentially harder to have novel experiences and explore as you get older, have kids, a mortgage, stable career, etc. So don't waste your early-mid twenties. This means lots of different things. Travel if you can. But even if you can't, meet new people, and go new places. Read about different ideas. Date different kinds of people. Don't stay in relationships you're not happy in. Basically, this part of your life is more valuable than you think.
— TooMuchPants

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