With that in mind, here is what I'd like to say to them-- the little bits and pieces of advice that I'd like to give them as one who went through high school and survived. Not that they would listen at the moment, since they're too busy reveling in the fact that it's finally SUMMER (Yay! Yah! WooHOOOOOOOOO!!! and all that jazz) to actually listen to anyone, but hey... that's what my blog is for, right? ^_^
So, without further ado (sounds so much more dramatic than it really is, huh? ^_^), here is my Top 8 list of Things Every New High Schooler Should Know:
1. Everything counts.
If you have a goal of succeeding in high school, going to college, and getting a job where you get paid a lot of money for not working very hard (as one of my daughter's friends was quoted as saying in their graduation ceremony), you have to start now, with that first Freshman Study Skills class. In high school, there are no MDFs to turn in when you were too busy to finish your homework and need an extra day or two (or 17, as the case may be) to get it in... Either you turn it in on time or the teacher docks you by half, no ifs ands or buts. It's not that there are no second chances in high school... it's just that second chances in high school are called "Credit Recovery" and you have to take them during your summer vacation :-( Which just plain sucks. Big time.
2. Don't underestimate the little things.
You never know what someone else is going through, and your one insignificant little action could be the thing that either makes their day bearable or destroys their will to go on. A whole school year of little things can make the difference between giving up and pushing through... especially since you have no idea of all the other "little things" that someone is thinking about in any given moment.
3. Kindness.
No matter what, you will never go wrong with kindness. Don't do to others just because they did it to you... an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind and all that. It doesn't matter who started it... You can be the one to finish it :-)
4. You don't know the future.
You may get the chance tomorrow to make amends for the stupidities of today. Then again, you may not. You have no way of knowing what is going to happen next to yourself or to that person walking away from you... As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone, and don't wait to make the wrong things right.
5. You can't change the past.
When all else fails, today is a new day, and you can always choose to keep walking forward. It really doesn't matter what everyone says you are or what everyone is predicting based on yesterday and all that came before... You are who you are because God has formed you and shaped you to be in this place, and where you go from here is between you and Him. Don't let the haters tell you who you have to be.
6. YOLO.
When Nickelback says to live like today was your last day, it doesn't necessarily mean that you should go out and give everything away and refuse to plan for the future. Rather, live each day so that when you lay down at night, you don't have any regrets to keep you awake. If you have to think about how you're going to hide what you're about to do, chances are good you probably shouldn't be doing it. If you've screwed up and need to make things right, do it today, ASAP. Very few people will be ticked off at you for calling or texting them at 10:45 PM to say you're sorry :-)
7. YODO. You only die once too. Don't be excessively stupid :-) (And, since I forgot to include a video in the last post, I'll throw in a bonus video here...
And finally, with all that being said...
8. Enjoy high school.
This is your last chance to be a kid, before you have to worry about a job, a place to live, insurance, settling down and raising kids, etcetera. Think about it... If you're 14 now, you could have at least 60 years ahead of you to do all those things. You don't have to choose a husband or wife, a career path, or a house right now (although the choices you make now could end up having a huge effect on those choices down the road...) Enjoy being young and having your whole life ahead of you... Don't be in such a hurry to weigh yourself down with the worries of being an adult just yet, because in 20 years, you'll be looking back and going, "Y'know, I really, really wish I hadn't done that...", and you'll end up sitting at your kitchen table writing all of these things down in a blog instead of actually telling your kids and their friends what they need to know to survive high school ^_^
I think this song pretty much sums up everything I want to say here... and knowing my daughter, chances are good that she'd rather hear it from somebody yelling into a microphone than from me, anyway ^_^
Today really is the first day of the rest of your life... and not just because that's what the vice-principal said in his official 8th grade graduation speech that he's probably been giving from memory since Vanilla Ice was still cool o_O No, today is the first day of the rest of your life because, as long as you still have life in you, you can choose to make it the first day. This is your life, no one else's... and no one can take that away from you :-)
