ELEVEN THINGS

A Very Important List
For high school and college graduates, here is a list of eleven things you did not learn in school. In his book, Bill Gates talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world. You may want to share this list with someone you know.

1. Life is not fair. Get used to it.
2. The world does not care about your self-esteem. The world expects you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. "Respect" is earned, not given.

3. You will NOT make forty thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both. There will be lots of competition for them and if you can't cut it, "racism" and the "glass ceiling" may not be to blame. Plenty of male WASPs are propping up desks at the low end of the white collar world.

4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure -- he has competitors.

5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger-flipping; they called it 'opportunity'. They didn't expect it to pay a 'living wage' -- it was simply a stepping-stone to a real job, and a chance to prove that you could work hard and be reliable.

6. If you mess up, it's not the fault of your parents, your teachers, or society, so don't whine about your mistakes and blame them on others -- learn from them.

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 are and how unfair everything is. So before you save the rainforest from the 'environment-destroying parasites of your parents' generation,', try de-lousing the closet in your own room, and while you're at it, go mow the damn lawn, too.

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. Be advised that this does not bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.

9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Sorry, but you'll have to do that on your own time.

10. Television is not real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs, wash their dishes, pay for their clothing, et cetera.

11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

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