I had printed this out long ago (bottom of my page says 7/1/99!!)and found it today while going thru stuff here. I printed it out for my kids back then but holds even truer for today.
Charles Sykes is the author of DUMBING DOWN OUR KIDS. In his book, he talks abou thow the liberal, feel good poitically correct garbage has created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and se them up for failure in the real world. He volunteered the following reality check for high school and college graduates. We all need to read and consider it carefully.
Rule 1: Life is not fair: get used to it.
Rule 2: The world won't care abou tyour self-esteem. The world wil lexpect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You wil lnot make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone until you *earn* both. (although today kids have cell phones as little kids so needs updating for sure!)
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He dosn't have tenure.
Rule 5: Fliping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you screw up, it's not your parents fault, so dont' 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 paying YOUR bills, cleaning YOUR room, and listening to YOU tellt hem how idealistic you are. So before you save the rain forest from the blood s***ing 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 htey have abolished failing grades, they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblence 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 inhelping 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.