{"id":6331,"date":"2017-05-18T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=6331"},"modified":"2017-05-17T18:38:09","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T23:38:09","slug":"wish-id-told-graduating-high-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2017\/05\/18\/wish-id-told-graduating-high-school\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Wish I\u2019d Have Been Told When I Was Graduating From High School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Class of 2017, beware of money.<\/p>\n

I forget who gave our commencement speech.\u00a0 Probably said, Be a good American, make your family proud, reach for the stars but keep your feet on the ground, same thing you\u2019re going to hear when you\u2019re wearing the flat top hat.\u00a0 If they\u2019d have said, \u201cHey, watch out for money,\u201d I bet I\u2019d have remembered that.<\/p>\n

_ \u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _ \u00a0 _ \u00a0 _<\/p>\n

\u201cSitting Here Tonight\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your speaker will use those three words.\u00a0 You\u2019re \u201csitting here tonight\u201d at the first big fork in life\u2019s road and wondering which way to turn.\u00a0 What you don\u2019t know, is that the grownups up there in the cheap seats are still facing forks in the road.<\/p>\n

Your first fork is work vs. more education.\u00a0 Both of them ask more questions, like Do What, Do Where, Do When, Do Which First…<\/p>\n

Life is fork after fork, some no fun, some come as result of taking the wrong road at the last fork.\u00a0 What do you do when you went to law school, first professional in the family, waist deep in student loans and then find out that \u00be of all the attorneys on the planet are practicing in America?\u00a0 Grandma\u2019s proud that you\u2019re wearing a suit to work, but being on a billboard soliciting 18 wheeler wrecks makes you feel like one of those buzzards that used to fly over grandpa\u2019s farm.<\/p>\n

What do you do when someone who said I Do at a previous fork decides they Don\u2019t anymore?\u00a0 Or your parents get sick?\u00a0 Or your child gets diagnosed with some behavior issue?\u00a0 Or you get diagnosed with cancer\u2026<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been banging on the door to be an adult.\u00a0 Come on, make yourself a place at the grownup table.<\/p>\n

_ \u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _ \u00a0 _ \u00a0 _<\/p>\n

Being A Friend To Yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019re gonna be amazed at how few of these friends from high school are a part of your life in five years.\u00a0 The people you\u2019re going to spend most of the rest of your life with include a spouse you may not have met, and children yet unborn.<\/p>\n

The one relationship you have, of all the people sitting here tonight, till death do you part, is yourself, so be good company.\u00a0 When you were a kid your identity was tied to whether daddy was rich or momma was good looking, and then you start drifting off, in the safety of your peers, and you become a generation.\u00a0 One of the points of life \u2013 and not many get there \u2013 is to leave the herd and become a full, complete, imperfect individual.\u00a0 You and all your inner stuff, your head, heart, and conscience, y\u2019all have got to get to know each other in a no vacation, no graduation situation.<\/p>\n

All those Do Right\u2019s they\u2019ve been brainwashing you with all your life\u2026they really do matter.\u00a0 You\u2019re gonna have to decide if there is some Higher Power out there that you need to please, but hear me clear on this, you\u2019ve got to please yourself.<\/p>\n

When you lie, cheat, steal, doesn\u2019t matter if you get caught, what you\u2019ve told yourself is \u2018I am someone who\u2026\u2019\u00a0 And that\u2019s the price, what I call the whore price\u2026for some pitiful gain, I\u2019ve sold my self respect\u2026\u00a0 I have no problem confessing that I\u2019ve learned this the hard way.<\/p>\n

One day at a time, trying to do right, unto others, unto to yourself, those add up to self respect, even if math wasn\u2019t your strongest subject\u2026<\/p>\n

_ \u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _ \u00a0 _ \u00a0 _<\/p>\n

Practical Matters<\/strong><\/p>\n

You were raised up in Political Correctness.\u00a0 I apologize.\u00a0 Your escape map is something your elders call Common Sense.<\/p>\n

Not only are we not equal, siblings are not even equal in the same family.\u00a0 Forget all that deserving nonsense.\u00a0 We don\u2019t even deserve being alive – it\u2019s a gift.<\/p>\n

And no, life isn\u2019t fair.\u00a0 I ceilinged out as a 5\u201910 white boy with a 12\u201d vertical, so I never got to play in the NBA, but life was even more unfair to people I\u2019ve known, diabetes amputations, dead from car wrecks, an aneurysm, suicide, and random acts of nature.<\/p>\n

Pull your weight.\u00a0 Live within your means.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t afford it, then increase your income.\u00a0 Can\u2019t do it, or won\u2019t do, then do without, like a bazillion of your ancestors did.\u00a0 Mary, the mother of Jesus, didn\u2019t have indoor plumbing or granite counters.\u00a0 Kid turned out alright anyhow.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re going to have to work.\u00a0 It comes down to two categories: goods or services.\u00a0 Make sure you end up on the clean conscience end of employment.\u00a0 If your customer is a victim, every transaction makes you dirtier.\u00a0 If customers pay different prices for same product, run for your soul.\u00a0 If it doesn\u2019t work, doesn\u2019t last, if you wouldn\u2019t sell it to your mother or buy it for yourself, roll on.<\/p>\n

Your ideal job is one that uses your best gifts in a useful way.\u00a0 If you\u2019re creative, don\u2019t waste it in accounting.\u00a0 If you\u2019re an introvert don\u2019t go into sales.<\/p>\n

If you feel a calling, follow it.<\/p>\n

_ \u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _ \u00a0 _ \u00a0 _<\/p>\n

Beware The Benjamins<\/strong><\/p>\n

They did a study on money.\u00a0 Increasing your income from $5000 to $50,000 made a dramatic difference in happiness, security, reduction of stress.\u00a0 At $50k you won\u2019t freeze in the winter, you won\u2019t get wet when it rains, you\u2019ll have dependable transportation, food in the pantry, and money for play and treats.<\/p>\n

Surprise, surprise, they found that increasing your income from $50,000 to $5,000,000 made far less of an impact.\u00a0 You had a bigger house to not freeze in, and a bigger roof to keep you dry.\u00a0 You could afford several automobiles, but still only drive one at a time.\u00a0 You can only be in one room, sit in one chair, no matter the square footage.<\/p>\n

As prostitution is considered the original profession, I consider money the original drug.\u00a0 The number of lives wasted chasing wealth is\u2026huuuge.<\/p>\n

Debt is a collar and leash we place upon ourselves.\u00a0 Researchers studying wealth invited millionaires to a conference.\u00a0 The researchers drove up in BMW\u2019s and Mercedes, the millionaires drove 10 year old Buicks.\u00a0 Some had never made more than $75K a year.\u00a0 Summary, it ain\u2019t how much you make, it\u2019s how much you keep.<\/p>\n

_ \u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _ \u00a0 _ \u00a0 _<\/p>\n

This edition of Uncle P\u2019s Bedtime Stories is brought to you by Eighty-one, which cannot end this story without reminding you that if you\u2019ve ever asked Why, you\u2019re qualified to ask the Big ?, what\u2019s the point of life and why am I here. \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Uncle P\u2019s Bedtime Stories can be found on the Eighty-one Facebook page.\u00a0 He can be reached at 81creativity@gmail.com.<\/i><\/p>\n

P.S.\u00a0 If you\u2019re thinking about a certain field, ask Google about suicides and divorces before you sign up.\u00a0 You\u2019d be amazed at how high status equals high risk\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Class of 2017, beware of money. I forget who gave our commencement speech.\u00a0 Probably said, Be a good American, make your family proud, reach for the stars but keep your feet on the ground, same thing you\u2019re going to hear when you\u2019re wearing the flat top hat.\u00a0 If they\u2019d have said, \u201cHey, watch out [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[59,894],"yoast_head":"\nWhat I Wish I\u2019d Have Been Told When I Was Graduating From High School - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2017\/05\/18\/wish-id-told-graduating-high-school\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What I Wish I\u2019d Have Been Told When I Was Graduating From High School - BestOfSwla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Class of 2017, beware of money. 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