What do 50-year-olds know that 20-year-olds often don’t?

Here’s one you won’t hear most older people admit to, but it’s unquestionably true.

By and large, we’re bullshitting you.

It doesn’t mean we don’t have the benefit of experience. It doesn’t mean we haven’t learned some hard-won lessons throughout our own lives. It doesn’t mean we don’t have important information to impart. We do.

The problem is we’re probably going to impart it to you when you didn’t ask for it and it usually won’t apply to your specific situation.

(* Shh. Be quiet! They’ll catch on to our secret! *)

The secret is there is no secret. You’ll make mistakes, you’ll fall down, and you’ll make fools of yourselves. But you’ll also get up, you’ll chase your dreams, you’ll have your successes, and you’ll win on your own terms.

You’ve got this, newly minted adults. The world is yours. Go for what you want, treat others with kindness, and don’t let anyone talk you out of what you want to do as long as you don’t take advantage of or hurt anyone else in the process.

We’re your slightly more wrinkly peers in adulthood. We’re not your particularly judgmental parents and you aren’t our misbehaving children.