Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Mary Schmich (b. 1953) American newspaper columnist

“Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young,” Chicago Tribune (1 Jul 1997)