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People seem to like giving advice to children. It's like the song says, they're our future, teach them well and let them lead the way. The problem I have is that the advice we give to our kids is always useful, yes, it's stuff you need to know, but it's never the really PRACTICAL stuff. The stuff you have to learn through life experience.
I reckon I should start making a list. A list of things that, if I ever have kids, I will tell my child on their 16th birthday. I think there's alesson here for all of us:

If something's genuinely fun to do but it's a job, don't expect to get paid much for it.
If it's tedious or unpleasant to do, you might get paid a lot for it. You're not forced to.
Find things that are both cheap and fun to do, then do them a lot. I take drinking pints of bad coke in pubs and laughing at nothing in particular, for preference.
Work is work. Social time is social time. Personal time is personal time. If you're going to mix them, only mix them with their immediate neighbour and only one at a time (make friends at work, spend your personal time with good personal friends, but don't work when it's time to be yourself and don't mix your personal friends with your work friends as they'll not likely have much in common).
Once you hit 18, meet as many people as possible. Talking to strangers for some reason becomes alright after you've hit a certain age.
Sometimes you'll grow up and not notice it at all and sometimes you'll wake up, feel completely different and never look back.
Never buy a drink that has more than 3 colours in it.
Never buy a drink that has more than 8 colours on the label's logo.
Make as many mistakes as you can while you're young enough to get away with them and to recover from the results.
If it seems like kind of a bad idea, it might not be. If it GENUINELY seems like a bad idea, if you kow deep down that it's a stupid thing to do, it most certainly is.
Do things that scare you. It's unpleasant, but it'll make you a lot wiser and staying in your comfort zone is a great way to never develop.
Don't worry about the little things, but don't ignore them or they turn into the big things. Prioritisation is the key thing.
Be careful about trusting anyone who really seems to want to be your friend. Like, to the extent that they're almost being aggressive about it. They're trying to sell you something.
Likewise, don't trust anyone who starts a conversation with you when you're walking down the street. They're DEFINITELY trying to sell you something. Or trying to mug you.
People who actually look very strange normally aren't as strange as people who look entirely normal apart from one or two very slight things.
Cheese is a reasonable thing to add to anything.
Do something embarassing on occasion.
Find the people that matter in life and make every effort to keep in touch with them no matter what. There's little worse than finding a good friend and then one day having to say goodbye.
Reinvent yourself a few times until you find a style that you're comfortable with, regardless of what other people think of it.
Try new things whenever you can.
And finally, no matter what happens in life, there's always going to be a cup of tea, a bed and a new day around the corner.