Brenec

I’m 30 tomorrow so here’s everything I’ve learned up until this point. Some of this might be obvious. Most of it probably is. But if even one person younger than me reads this and it helps them then it was worth writing. I got pretty famous and pretty rich when I was 18. I made a LOT of mistakes. Surprisingly, I have no regrets. I’m not bullshitting. Everything I went through shaped who I am and somehow everything worked out the way it needed to. Here’s what I learned. Exercise. Get outside. Get some sun. Eat well. Love people. Have sex. Build relationships. Engage with your community. It’s really that simple. I spent years sitting in front of a gaming monitor, prioritizing money and work over my health and relationships. I treated my body like shit. Breakfast? 3 dabs and a few nicotine pouches. Lunch? Dinner? DoorDash whatever garbage I could order and eat as fast as possible at the end of the day. That was my routine for years. I had moments of clarity during my 20s but I always ended up falling back into the same habits. It wasn’t until I hit rock bottom that I finally took drastic action. And honestly, that’s another reason I have no regrets. Sometimes you have to completely fuck things up before you’re willing to change. One thing I’ve thought about a lot recently is the constant “men vs women” discourse online. I see stories every day about why men don’t need women, why women don’t need men, why relationships are a scam, why love is dead, etc. I’ve read all of it. I’m just as chronically online as you are. But something I don’t see nearly as often is people in genuinely healthy relationships talking about how fucking incredible they can be. Maybe it just doesn’t have enough shock value to make it onto your timeline. So let me tell you: The single greatest pleasure I’ve found in life is growing alongside someone I’m deeply and madly in love with. The world can literally fall apart around you. It has for me. Multiple times. Very publicly. But when you have that one person beside you, somehow everything feels manageable. The long walks. The late-night conversations. Cooking breakfast together. Laughing at stupid shit. Having someone who knows you better than almost anyone and still chooses you every day. A healthy relationship that gets stronger and deeper over time has been the single greatest net positive in my life. And if there’s one thing I’ll regret when I’m old, it’s not spending more time with the people I love. So for the younger guys reading this: Let yourself fall in love. Deeply. Don’t be afraid of getting hurt. Be an excellent partner. Get her flowers. Remember the little things. Listen to her. Make her feel wanted. Make her laugh. Make her orgasm, often. Put effort into the relationship even after the honeymoon phase wears off. If it doesn’t work out, so be it. If you gave the relationship everything you had you can eventually make peace with it, heal, and move forward better than you were before. And if you were a shitty boyfriend and she leaves you? Learn from it. I’ve been there. Don’t turn your mistakes into bitterness. Turn them into growth. Most importantly, don’t buy into the bullshit that love is dead or love isn’t real. Love is probably the most real thing that exists. One last thing: A lot of you are lacking perspective. Go volunteer at an elderly home. Go spend time with disabled people. Talk to someone who has lived 80 years instead of scrolling through someone who has lived 30. You’ll realize pretty quickly that a lot of the shit you’re stressing about is completely insignificant. Your problems might feel enormous when you’re inside of them. But zoom out. You’re alive. You have time. You can fuck up and try again. And you can become a completely different person if you decide you want to. Maybe I’ll change my mind when I’m 40. But as of 30 years old, this is what I believe to be true. Officially unc.