Life Skills 101

When I finished watching  Lara Croft: Tomb Raider I was blown away. I quickly sensed that here was a cinematic masterpiece. It was everything I had ever wanted in a movie. It had Angelina Jolie playing a wealthy heiress in a very tight cat suit. She had endless amounts of time. She had expensive gadgets. She had a mission. I wanted to be her.

I was so impressed. Now there is someone who is prepared for life, I thought. Lara Croft spoke the native language of Cambodia. Of course she did. She’d spent years learning it just in case it ever came in handy. And what do you know—she needed her random language skills when she least expected it.

That’s how I wanted to be: prepared for anything, like Lara Croft. I wanted to be strong and confident in odd situations, to not lose my head when things got tough. 

And things do get tough! Even when (unbelievably) you don’t end up being a tomb raider with piles of money, there are some Life Skills that are really, seriously helpful to have under your belt. You never know when you’re going to need them.

I can think of tons of Life Skills you’d be real happy to have at random times (starting a fire in the woods without matches, changing a car tire, figuring out if a mushroom is poisonous), but here are nine major Life Skills, in no particular order, that my friends and I agreed that we’ve randomly needed in our college-and-beyond lives so far:

1. Introducing Someone Well

At some point, you’ll have to do introductions that don’t go like this: “Everybody, this is Kim. Kim, this is everybody.” Sooner or later, you are going to need to introduce someone you want to impress to someone who is important to you, or introduce two people who you are certain would loooove each other, and the way you introduce them matters!

Introduce these two people with old-fashioned, 1950s-party-hostess style and grace. Include something personal, non-superficial, and interesting about each person when you do it, and act like they’re the two most important and fascinating people in the world.

No: “Jenny, this is Matt. He loves blondes with big boobs. Matt, this is Jenny. She has blonde hair…and you can see the rest hahahha.”

Yes: “Jenny, this is Matt. Matt has a black belt in karate, but he won’t show you any moves unless you really beg him. And Matt, this is Jenny; she’s one of the funniest people I know—we were actually just talking about what happened to her at the calculus finals on Friday. OK so Jenny, what happened?”

BOOM! They have two possible conversation topics, they’re both fascinating…and you quietly excuse yourself, you Grand Puppet Master of Matchmaking.

2. Really Apologizing

We all screw up, and when we do, the way we apologize is important. Now, no one has to accept your apology—that’s their right. But! No matter how sorry you are, you can make things a hundred times worse by using one single word: IF. Watch!

You didn’t invite your less-popular-but-very-good friend to your house for a sleepover on purpose, because more-popular girls are coming and they think she’s weird. You tried to hide it, because you know not inviting your friend is an assy thing to do, but she found out and now she’s pissed and not speaking to you.

Bad apology: “I’m sorry if you feel left out, or like I didn’t want you there or something.”

Look at you! You’re not sorry! Look at that if! You’re basically blaming her for feeling the way that you made her feel. “I’m sorry if you…” is a shit apology. You’re sorry? BE SORRY. Don’t blame the other person or use sneaky words like if to shift things around to sound like you’re not really to blame. Apologies involving the if word tend to turn into major fights, because one person believes they are trying to make amends, and the other person doesn’t hear any actual sorry-ness.

Good apology (always happens in person, btw): “I’m sorry I didn’t invite you to my house. That was a shitty thing to do. I won’t do that to you again. I understand if you’re still mad at me.”

Look at all those I words. You did the bad thing, you take the blame. Nice!

So that's what I've got so far, of course you're going to encounter a lot of other things in life that these 3 points don't necessary cover, but it's a start no? 

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend x

3. Throwing a Punch

Sad but true: someday, you might need to hit someone. There have definitely been times in my life (hi, college) that I needed to get a boy off me, like right then, and I wish I would have known how to throw a good punch to make him see things my way. Now, I’m not saying go pick some fights, or punch someone for insulting your mother, but knowing how to throw a punch that means business is a good skill to have under your survival belt. I mean, make no mistake: please try to not fight. Get away; run from fighting if you can. We’re not talking fighting for the sake of fighting. We’re talking a good punch to stop some fighting, or to get yourself the hell away from someone who is physically all up in your business.

When throwing a punch:

• Use the hand you write with.

• Make a fist with your thumb outside, not tucked inside. If it’s tucked inside your fist, when you punch someone, you might break your thumb. The thumb goes across your fingers, not on the side.

• Don’t be like in the movies—don’t aim for the face. Face punches don’t usually stop people, and you can miss when they duck their head or break your hand on their jaw. If you want to get away quickly, or end a fight, aim for the chest, or the ribs. If you really want to do some damage, e.g., you’re being attacked, aim for the throat, which will make it hard for your attacker to breathe for a hot minute.

• When you punch, you want to aim and hit with your first two knuckles. Not the flats of your fingers, and not your ring or pinky knuckles, which can break more easily. You can use your weight, if you’re on your feet, to add wallop, and spring into a punch with your feet and torso.

So that's what I've got so far, of course you're going to encounter a lot of other things in life that these 3 points don't necessary cover, but it's a start no? 

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend x