Welcome to this week’s Thursday Thoughts with Tiffany.

Some of you may know, but most of you don’t, that I’ve lost both of my parents. I lost my father before I could really get to know him and before he was able to impart the infinite wisdom he had. The last few memories I have of my mother are her being unable to walk without the use of a walker (and she was in her 50s, whereas my grandma could walk just fine without any walking aid), and her eyes were glassy and more often than not relatively incoherent (this will be for a more in depth post another time).

Both of my parents were taken before their time and before they were able to teach me what it really takes to live life. Granted, I went to college for four years at Northern Arizona University. I thought I was ready to take on the world, that I knew all that was necessary to start my life and become self sufficient.

I was dead wrong.

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I recently had a flat tire, and when I asked my aunt and uncle for help and what to do, the response from my uncle over the telephone was, “Don’t you know how to change a tire? Don’t you know where your spare tire is?”

No, I don’t. Why would I?

I hadn’t been in this situation before.

Well, that got me to thinking about the things you learn and the figures who are assumed to teach you.

I never had a father figure who would teach me about cars-to teach me how to handle a flat. I went to drivers education, but most of it was in theory and not application (I’m very kinetic in my learning). I didn’t really get a chance to have parental figures to help me pick out my first car, or who will be with me when I buy my first house or who will be with me at my wedding.

And the four years of schooling did not prepare me to handle a flat tire.

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There are things in life that you aren’t taught in college, and here are a few of them:

1) How to change a flat tire (or anything else relating to cars, really)

2) How to pay your taxes or avoid debt (When my mom died in February 2012, I found out that she had accumulated roughly $300,000 in debt and backed up taxes. This was a huge wake up call to me, since I thought I had to pay off her debt)

3) Anything about taxes, really (I recently found out about state and government taxes and am still only exploring the tip of the iceberg on this subject)

4) Finance 101 (wish they would have included this in my Freshman 101 class! I think they gave us budget worksheets, but that was it. It wasn’t until my Senior year that I got a basic taste of this, and then I wished I’d  explored this topic sooner)

5) How to travel on an airplane (lucky for me, my family took lots of trips so I was exposed early on to this adventure, but one of my friends has never really flown nor does she know what to do if she were to fly)

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These were just a few of the things that I could come up with right now. I know as I go through life I’ll be confronted with other adventures (currently, moving from one house to another and going through everything) which I’ll address as they come up. It seems that only when something is relevant to you do you give it much credence.

Having to deal with things by myself also makes me realize that my parents probably did try to drill basic things in my head, but as a kid you don’t care about the world or give as much credit to whatever your parents nag you about or try to explain to you (i.e. take your shoes off when you come inside or shake your shoes out before you put them on [lest you want to meet a spider or other insect]). I know I didn’t.

Makes you think that, maybe, you really should have listened.

I ended up putting a little air into my tire and taking it into Discount Tires. They did a free tire repair and let me know that I’d had a nail in the tire. I became familiar with where my spare tire is for when I’ll need it.

Crisis averted. Thankfully I was able to to still attend the events that I’d committed to.

Are there things you wish you’d been taught in college? Or instances where you wish you’d listened to someone who already warned you how to do something or what not to do? Or a moment where you thought “I probably learned about that in school…Why didn’t I pay better attention?”

Share in the comments-I’d love to read about it.