"Keep your pants on!" my dad shouted at me as I left the house to go meet my friends.

Every time I went out when I was in high school, no matter where I was going or who I was with, my dad would say this.

This was his advice. And believe me, Dad, it was good advice.

Words of wisdom can be found anywhere and can come from anyone.

Whenever I was depressed, an old friend used to say, "I can't tell you things are going to get better, but I can promise you things are going to get different."

I liked this approach. It wasn't an empty promise of optimism, but it was a little hope for something else.

That's kind of an offset of my mom's favorite quote: "This too shall pass."

My mom has taught me that when you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up. But at the same time, there's only one way to go if you're on top of the world.

I've gotten lots of good advice over the years. However, I've never been one to take the path of least resistance. I don't want to be told what the world is like. I want to experience it for myself and then draw my own conclusions.

This has been a topic of argument between my parents and me many times; for a while, we weren't even on speaking terms. It took someone else's words of wisdom to make me see why.

I was sitting outside a friend's house one night crying. On one side of me was my ex-boyfriend/best friend Nick, with whom I had just had an extremely bad fight. On the other side of me was a guy snorting cocaine.

Neither Nick nor I knew who this guy was or why he was there, but he was talking to me, trying to make me stop crying.

He said he was some kind of psychic and was trying to help me solve the problems in my life.

He talked to me about my parents and said, "Don't be so hard on people who love you enough to try to protect you."

These words pointed me in the right direction and gave me the will to make peace with my parents.

Also, the cokehead taught Nick and I that one person can't give you everything, and you have to be able to see when they are giving you all they have. This guy probably saved our friendship.

Throughout high school, my best friend Misty and I always said, "No regrets." When we did make mistakes, we vowed to take responsibility for them and learn from them.

And together we learned the hard way that what doesn't kill a friendship makes it stronger.

I can't say I don't regret anything I've ever done, but I can say that I have learned from everything I regret.

This is where my therapist's advice comes in. He told me that sometimes it's better to conceal the truth to spare peoples' feelings.

My dad's new favorite advice is "Use your head," and/or "Don't drink and drive." Both are very practical requests.

On the other hand, Misty's new favorite saying is "In life everyone has a choice to make. I choose to have another drink." This, also, is very good advice.

Willie Nelson says, "I could cry for the time I've wasted, but that would be a waste of time and tears." 311 says, "It's one thing to make the same mistake twice. It's another thing to make it all of your life."

Never underestimate anyone's ability to change your attitude or even your life.

I even take advice when it comes to my writing.

My favorite words of wisdom can be found pinned to a wall in The Tech Talk office. It's an excerpt from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll:

"The White Rabbit put on his spectacles.

'Where should I begin, please, your majesty?' he asked.

'Begin at the beginning,' the King said, very gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end; then stop.'"

Heidi Hausmann is a senior journalism major from Opelousas and serves as editor for The Tech Talk.