LEFT TO RIGHT
By Mariah S.Bill Gates recently spoke to a graduating class of high school seniors. He told those present that there are a number of important life lessons that they would not learn in high school. So, here they are, along with my responses.Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!Exactly. You have to earn your way through life. It doesn't just get handed to you in an oh-so-simple way. You have to work hard for it.Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.No one notices you by what you look like or who you know; it's how you do your job, and that you do well at it.Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.Right out of college your expectations may be higher then what you can really handle. You have to work yourself up to your expectations. Most likely, it'll be hard at first, but in the end, if you really want it and work hard for what you believe in then, you'll make it to the top, and might even have that car phone;).Rule 4: If you think your teachers tough, wait till you get a boss.You think it's hard in high school with your teachers. The one that’s nice and lets you slack, or the one that's always on your tail about getting homework in and being late to class. But you haven't had it bad. You haven't had a boss-someone who can fire you from your well paid job, maybe that you’re good at. There's no slacking, or being late to work too many times. So quit whining about how bad school was because of Mr. or Miss. so'n'so, because your parents aren't whining about their boss, and they have it 10 times worse.Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.When your parents tell you how lucky you are to have a good job that pays well, they mean it and you should be lucky to have one, even if you are flipping burgers at Dairy Queen or McDonalds. Your parents had it way harder back in the day. We have it a lot easier.Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.Sure, your parents will listen to you and help you through them, but what happens when you don’t have your parents there for you? When you have to learn from your mistakes on your own, hopefully you'll learn from those the first time around and take that to mind and not for granted.Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.Sure, your parents can be old school, very old school, but remember the world’s changed A LOT since they were your age, and that's true. They've helped you grow up to who you are now, and you owe them a lot for that. So quit telling them how un-cool' they are and how they should be like so'n'so's parents because they're cool. Just love them for who they are ‘cause you know they love you for who you are now, and who your growing up to be.Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.High school is for learning new things and getting ready for life and college after high school. That's why you have it, but once you get that job you've always wanted or succeed with your goals in life there’s those ups and downs; and sometimes you only have one chance to get it right. You don’t have as many chances as you want to get it right, like in high school where you have homework do the next day, but you turn it in a week later. That doesn't happen in real life. You have to have it done exactly on time; and if it's not, you may lose your job’ or might get behind on your house payments.Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.When you work, sure you'll have your good days and your bad days, but when you need your time off you'll need to come together on your own time, whether that’s on your own time at home, or during a lunch break, or maybe just in between short classes.Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.This means that on TV they make it look simple, but in REAL life it isn't, you actually have to go work.Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one
