Syllabus

Did YOU ever read the goddamn syllabus? Fuck that, just pay attention in class, do your fucking work, and get help when you need it. Listen, write that shit down in your planner. Take care of your damn business and try to LEARN as much as you can. Shit. Oh, and don't forget to have fun.

Worries

Worry, like anger, is harmful and not productive. Don't do it to yourself. It's a mental kick in the balls. It's the emotional equivalent of poking yourself with a pin. Most of us wouldn't take an lemon peel and squeeze it into our open eye. Don't do the same thing with your scary thoughts.

If you're religious, for God's sake, follow your faith's teachings. They all preach surrendering your worries to God. But that's easy to say and hard to do (for a lot of us). If you're not religious, consider getting one, or fall back on your reasoning mind and preferred wisdom philosophy. They can often fill that hole in your sole. 

Replace your hand wringing with useful actions that address in real life whatever (the hell) you're worrying about.

Worried about your kids getting COVID at school? Educate them about all the things they need to do to prevent the spread of COVID for themselves (and others). Or, home school. Or take advantage of your school's (district's) distance learning option. 

Worried about climate change? Prepare yourself for the possible results: simplify your life, minimize your physical assets for easy mobility if you have to move. Train yourself for survival in the world you imagine might encounter. 

Worried about something else? Think of a solution that will prepare you for possible eventualities, write them down, start taking action and put the pieces in place to deal with it. Whatever your worry, there are knowledge resources to help you get a handle on the solutions.

Upset over some great wrongness in the world? Get involved in the solution in a real way (outside your online world). You can still use your social media to be active, spread awareness and find organizations to work with. But if you don't actually GO THERE and work with people in real life, and spend the time and effort, and/or money, you're not likely to allay much of your worry.

For all these human challenges, remember that at all times in human history, people have faced problems just as bad. Imagine being a Jew in WWII Germany. An American living in the Civil War South. A slave in any of the slave countries. A current Uyghur in present-day China or Rohingya in Myanmar. How about a Black Plague peasant? Most of us live in amazing security and luxury, and many of us in tolerable comfort. When it's our time to struggle, then struggle we will to the best of our abilities. Here are some general tips that best prepare you for ANY potential future:

• Make friends. Be part of a community that you contribute to and rely on in times of trouble. 
• Develop your faith or philosophy that helps you focus on the important tasks and find peace when times are tough. The daily/periodic practice of religion can really help with this if you don't have your own practice that keeps you centered and at peace.
• Plan and prepare, work and build for anything that troubles your thoughts.
• Make friends with death, your own and the death of your loved ones. Spoiler alert: they all die in the end. In American culture, this is not a normal practice, but it should be. Find resources (books, people, etc.) that can help you if this is not something you're comfortable with.
• Be smart. Stay educated. Read and listen broadly and deeply in many topics that give you general understanding of how everything in the world works. Talk about them with other smart people to help process and own your knowledge. Practice doing new things (crafts, building, fixing things, different sports/ activities, hobbies, technologies, interactions with different systems).

Those things help you with general well being and keep you young. The collateral benefits of facing your worries with action is you can often eliminate the cause of the worries. Acting is learning, too. 

In any case, shut-up your ridiculous worries by getting your pusillanimous ass in gear to vanquish them to your personal historical dustbin.