At the beginning of the summer, our esteemed editor asked us to dispense some advice on how to survive college to the incoming freshmen. Since I was moving, I missed the selection fun, where some of my eager beaver colleagues wanted to mud wrestle for the choice topics. I shelved the idea.
The idea resurfaced this past week after I saw something in my dad's office. Tacked to his copy room wall was a column that quoted some advice Bill Gates had given. Ironically, the author got it wrong, as have a lot of people. The advice is really from Charles Syke's book "Dumbing Down our Kids." His advice is focused on what they don't teach you in school, and it begs to be shared:
Rule 1 - Life is not fair - get used to 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.
Rule 3 - You will not make $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 - If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.
Rule 5 - Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it Opportunity.
Rule 6 - If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes; learn from them.
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 are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
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.
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.
Rule 10 - Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11 - Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
The whole point of sharing this with you is so you understand that college, while exciting and cool, is really about one thing: preparing to enter the work force. The point of college is to learn a set of skills that make you employable. If you work hard and study to learn, it is evident to an employer. It's what will get you the job. Then you're well on your way to achieving the American dream: individual prosperity.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
