Your older cousin’s advice sounds dramatic until you hit their age and realize they were underselling it.

Warnings from somebody a few years ahead sound overblown because you are hearing them before the situation exists. They are usually describing something accurately, from inside it, with the volume set by what it actually cost them. The gap between how it sounds and how it lands is information rather than exaggeration.

Take the advice you have been rolling your eyes at and write it somewhere you will find it later. Then ask that person what specifically happened to them, because the story is more use than the warning.