Advice To Graduates

The great thing about blogging is that one can write about anything one wishes!

During this past week, I was talking with a physician friend of mine during a work meeting and we got on the conversation of the expectations of our youth ... those graduating from high school and college ... and that most really have no clue as to how difficult it is to make a living and support a family in this present age. Their skulls of mush have been filled with all of the postmodern "crap" that the public (government) schools have forced into their collective craniums. Somehow, most kids have collectively come to the conclusion the the "right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is a certainty that the world (or government) owes them. Boy will they be disappointed!

We remembered the high school graduation speech the Bill Gates gave a few years back giving advice to recent graduates. I decided to look it up and to share it with my physician friend and then I figured I might as well put it into the blog.

Bill Gate's speech is timeless and every recent graduate should read it! Gates talked about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He 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.

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 $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car-phone until your earn both.

Rule #4: If you think you teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

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 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.

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.

(IF YOU CAN READ THIS, THANK A TEACHER! IF YOU ARE READING IT IN ENGLISH, THANK A SOLDIER)