Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young.

On this day in 1997, the words that were immortalised by Baz Luhrmann “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” are 14 years old.

The original article appeared in the Chicago Tribune entitled, “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young”.

The author, Mary Schmich set out to write a fictitious graduation speech. “Most of us, will never be invited to sow our words of wisdom among an audience of caps and gowns”.

She invited her readership to do the same, 14-years later we take up that mantle and the #sunscreenchallenge was born.

Each blogger spent 1-hour creating a graduation speech. Essentially, it’s the advice that they’d pass onto school leavers today based on their own life experience. However as I came to this challenge late today I am going to deliberately keep it "short and sweet".

If you’ve enjoyed the blog – please RT the post, include the #sunscreenchallenge tag and find other blog posts using this hashtag.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of 2011

The piece of advice I find myself giving most often and I should like to share with you is "Don't let fear limit your achievements'. Over the years there have been many things that I wished I had done but didn't because I was scared. Mainly scared of failure or of looking a fool in front of others.

I frequently hear people described in incredibly glowing terms but then with the caveat of "but they lack confidence" added to describe why I might not see this in them and I am pretty sure that the same has been said of me too at times.

In fact there are often times in my life when I realise I am being overly cautious because of a fear of failure or a lack of confidence even now. But what I have learnt is that even those who appear confident often aren't so - they just hide it better than perhaps I think I do.

So my advice to you and, also still to myself at times, is when you are afraid of failure - give it a go - do your best and if it does go wrong, people are pretty forgiving, on the whole. And if you are afraid of looking a fool, (and lets be honest here - who isn't?) I have learnt that if you give it a go - there will usually be at least one person who says I am glad you did that, I really wanted to too. And the bizarre thing is that often when you do feel you have made a fool of yourself, perhaps by asking what you think of as an obvious question, others will invariably see you as being brave to ask what they were afraid to.

And finally confidence is like a muscle in the body - it grows the more you exercise it. So you will become more confident as you try things you were initially scared to do. Ok - some wont go right but you will learn from them. But more will probably go right than wrong, so you will become more confident.

I've also found that is much easier to be confident when you are being honest with the world - honest about who you are, what you like and what you think of things. It is also easier to be confident in yourself when you surround yourself with positive people who appreciate you for who you are. Value those people as they are a rare treasure in life.

And finally do look after your knees, you really will miss them if you mess them up! As I have recently found out too.

If you liked this post, please RT and use the hashtag #sunscreenchallenge.

Here is a list of bloggers who are participating in the #sunscreenchallenge. Please visit their blogs to view their posts!

@ADCC1978 http://passthenomad.wordpress.com
@astrotour2010 http://davidault.blogspot.com
@bainser http://www.bainser.com/
@baxfail http://baxfail.wordpress.com/
@chrisgolds http://www.achapcalledchris.blogspot.com
@donkeycolm http://thesearethethoughts-c.blogspot.com/
@guy_interruptd http://www.sexdrugssausagerolls.wordpress.com/
@kaiserraath kaiserraath.wordpress.com
@lucasowen85 http://lucasowen85.wordpress.com
@mjryandaly http://markryandaly.com/
@stitch_85 http://someonewicked.posterous.com/
@windsorbuoy http://www.windsorboy.com/
@peacockpete http://www.peacockpete.co.uk/
@squawkbox http://squawkbox.tumblr.com/
@thirtydegree http://wp.me/p1rxiF-1E
@textster http://noneofthekingsmen.wordpress.com
@LiamSE21 http://t.co/ePClV1U
@Paulbuca http://paulbuca.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/wear-sunscreen/
@DavidJamesWest http://davidjameswest.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/sunscreenchallenge/
@jamiezoob http://skylarkingzooby.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/sunscreen-challenge/
@deadliftbear http://bit.ly/kFkSV7

The original article can be found here