Congratulations! You have made it to a huge milestone in your life. We are all proud of each and every one of you. Just by graduating from high school, you will make a much larger income over the course of your life than your friends who dropped out. You may eventually even get to work during the day and sleep at night.
You have many fond memories, but they are only the beginning. You won’t even remember most of them past your five year reunion. The vast majority of your life is still ahead of you, and the best times are yet to come. Your fun, laughter, romance, sense of accomplishment, and pride is not over. Quite the contrary, life has only just begun. You are going to laugh more, love more, experience more, and live more than you could even dream. You are a plant about to bloom.
That’s the good news. Now the bad. From now on, no one owes you anything. Your education may have been free to you, but every penny of it was paid by someone else. Now the free ride is over. College is expensive, but not going would be much more costly in lost wages in the long run. Get an education so you can get another job if your uncle’s auto shop goes under.
From now on, you will pay real money for every meal you eat. Businesses and colleges do not offer free lunch and you are going to have to earn the money. Life is not always fair so you might as well get used to it. If you get laid off, you may not be able to eat for a while. You may also find that eating out every meal quickly drains your paycheck.
You will work hard for every penny you make, and you will not start off as the CEO of a big company, earning a huge salary. That will only come to a few of you and will take years to achieve. For now, flipping burgers is a good place to start. You will have to work nights and weekends, of course, and when you take off to have some fun, you won’t get paid for it. You may, in fact, get fired if you miss too much or show an attitude. Educators had to put up with you, supervisors do not. They won’t care about your self esteem, home life, or childhood. They don’t care who your parents are or how you look in the latest fashion. They will only want to know if you can be at work on time and get your job done.
Oh, and you’ll work holidays and weekends too, so get used to it. If you thought your teachers were tough, wait until you get a boss. Your teachers may have passed you out of sympathy, but that has no resemblance to anything you’ll encounter in the real world.
The friendships you made in high school may last and they may not. Most will not. Your ability to make friends is what better last, especially when you move away for college or a job opportunity. One day, you may even discover that your parents aren’t such embarrassing losers after all. Thank them now for washing your drawers all these years.
Is life exciting? Yes it is. Is it challenging? Definitely. Is it worth living? Absolutely. I pray every day will bring you all the joy it has to offer. The decisions you make today, though, are going to decide much of that.
You have many fond memories, but they are only the beginning. You won’t even remember most of them past your five year reunion. The vast majority of your life is still ahead of you, and the best times are yet to come. Your fun, laughter, romance, sense of accomplishment, and pride is not over. Quite the contrary, life has only just begun. You are going to laugh more, love more, experience more, and live more than you could even dream. You are a plant about to bloom.
That’s the good news. Now the bad. From now on, no one owes you anything. Your education may have been free to you, but every penny of it was paid by someone else. Now the free ride is over. College is expensive, but not going would be much more costly in lost wages in the long run. Get an education so you can get another job if your uncle’s auto shop goes under.
From now on, you will pay real money for every meal you eat. Businesses and colleges do not offer free lunch and you are going to have to earn the money. Life is not always fair so you might as well get used to it. If you get laid off, you may not be able to eat for a while. You may also find that eating out every meal quickly drains your paycheck.
You will work hard for every penny you make, and you will not start off as the CEO of a big company, earning a huge salary. That will only come to a few of you and will take years to achieve. For now, flipping burgers is a good place to start. You will have to work nights and weekends, of course, and when you take off to have some fun, you won’t get paid for it. You may, in fact, get fired if you miss too much or show an attitude. Educators had to put up with you, supervisors do not. They won’t care about your self esteem, home life, or childhood. They don’t care who your parents are or how you look in the latest fashion. They will only want to know if you can be at work on time and get your job done.
Oh, and you’ll work holidays and weekends too, so get used to it. If you thought your teachers were tough, wait until you get a boss. Your teachers may have passed you out of sympathy, but that has no resemblance to anything you’ll encounter in the real world.
The friendships you made in high school may last and they may not. Most will not. Your ability to make friends is what better last, especially when you move away for college or a job opportunity. One day, you may even discover that your parents aren’t such embarrassing losers after all. Thank them now for washing your drawers all these years.
Is life exciting? Yes it is. Is it challenging? Definitely. Is it worth living? Absolutely. I pray every day will bring you all the joy it has to offer. The decisions you make today, though, are going to decide much of that.
No comments:
Post a Comment