Rules of Life
(author unknown)

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 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.

Rule 4
If you think your teacher is tough, wait until 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 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.

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High School grads: One last reading assignment: 25 things you should know that you probably didn't learn in school
by Dayle Shockley, Jewish World Review, June 5, 2002

As you make plans for your future, here are 25 things you should know that you probably didn't learn in school:

1. You have the power to keep a positive attitude, no matter what your circumstances are.

2. It never is right to do the wrong thing.

3. Telling lies is exhausting. Telling the truth will set you free, and even an ugly truth is better than a pretty lie.

4. Self-discipline is the key to success.

5. The Creator wants to be part of your daily life, but you have to open the door.

6. No day is more important than today, for tomorrow isn't here nor promised.

7. No matter what your vocation may be, you will have to answer to someone.

8. Marriage is a sacred covenant between a man and a woman and shouldn't be entered into lightly.

9. Don't use a handicap as an excuse to fail but as a driving force for succeeding.

10. Really listen to the old folks. They are wellsprings of wisdom.

11. People you thought you could depend on will let you down.

12. Living dangerously will catch up with you. And when it does, don't blame the Creator for your troubles.

13. No amount of book knowledge can make you a person of integrity.

14. Don't run from suffering. There are valuable lessons in life that can't be learned by any other means.

15. The most glorious things in life are free.

16. Never step on other people in order to get to the top.

17. Trying to be someone other than yourself is a strenuous exercise.

18. Don't put all of your energies into building palaces and empires; it only takes a moment for them to be ashes at your feet. Instead, build memories with the people you love, for memories always are with you.

19. The more things you acquire, the more problems you will have.

20. Have an opinion. The middle of the road will get you run over.

21. As you grow older, make sure you grow up as well. Nothing is more pathetic than an immature middle-aged human being.

22. Every choice you make will bring with it a reward or a consequence. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not even next year. But it will come just the same.

23. Make time in your world for silence - time in which to think, to dream and to listen to that still small voice.

24. At the close of the day, capture some of your feelings and activities on paper, even if the words sound ridiculous. Consider it the writing of your story for future generations.

25. Live each day as if it were your last, because one day it will be