One piece of advice you would give to high school/college graduates?

I would say:

"When life gets tough, remember that life was also tough for George Wasshington, Mother Teresa, Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, and Martin Luther King, Jr. When life throws lemons at you, make lemonade."

What would you say?

(I can't wait to hear from GrovelBot on this one.)

Never, ever compromise yourself.

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he can't start this until 40...

and your pastor starts sounding like an arm of the Republican National Committee,
PLEASE RAISE SOME HELL THERE!

Find your own groove. You do NOT have to conform.

Modernized for the *now* generation.

And too short to get stuck doing things you don't love. If you don't believe me, wait ten years; you'll absolutely know this is true.

Signed,

Learning the hard way :(

Don't EVER take the semester off at college unless you have no other choice. It will end up taking you 7+ years to finish your degree. And don't party too much. It's not as important as it seems.

Treat others as you would have them treat you......

"Study hard, don't be a quitter, resist peer pressure, party in moderation, and DON'T YOU DARE GET ANYBODY KNOCKED UP!"

:headbang:
rocknation

play "the game", when you have to but stay focused and dont lose perspective concerning who you are.

real life sucks

go back to school and stay there forever!!!!!!!1

:hide:

don't drink and drive and don't get into a car with someone who has been. Every year the saddest thing is hearing about some new graduate who bought it after, the after graduation keg. Some good advice I heard once was: do things in proper order and your life will be better and more simple. ie finish school, get your career on track, fall in love, get married, have children, etc. And I think what that means is life can be so much tougher if you have kids first, go to school, try to work, then get married or any of the other combinations that I, who had to do it my way, have done.

Don't sweat the small stuff.. "Keep it real."

good job, not unless you love doing it. I had lots of students who majored in business, even though they weren't interested in it, only to end up making lattes at Starbucks just like their liberal arts classmates. If you're really interested in business, then major in it, but if you find out that you prefer art or math or literature, major in that.

Take advantage of the opportunities on campus. One of the saddest things I ever read in a campus newspaper was a senior who said, "I haven't done that many things I didnt' do in high school." In the meantime, there were fantastic opportunities for broadening one's mind and experiences, not only study abroad, but also foreign students right on campus, visits by extremely famous political and cultural figures, foreign and independent films, concerts in the classical, jazz, blues, and world music genres, live theater, art exhibits, and social service programs.

Yet it seemed that a large number of students in my classes continued doing exactly what they had done in their leisure time in high school: partying, watching TV, playing video games, and going to sports events.

What a waste of tuition!

and something that makes a difference in the world.

Be comfortable and confident with yourself before you go looking to get married.

and

Don't spend all your time in books, experiement with drugs, drink heavily, and stay away from church. (j/k)

whether or not you understand personal finance, you probably don't. In this area, it is primarily what you don't know that will hurt you. In today's society, this is a fundamental survival skill.

Understand how to balance a checkbook, how interest rates work, how credit cards and other forms of loans work, what credit ratings are and what impacts them, and why all of this matters.

This is not at all difficult, and it definitely is not something you want to learn about the hard way.

Keep the friends who help you move.

if you don't know someone well enough to talk about birth control/STD prevention...then you don't know them well enough to have sex with them.

you will wake up to yourself. Be sure it is the person that you like, respect, and want to be. And expect that life will be difficult and not exactly how you plan it to be and that is okay go with it.

your very very first job.

:(

I'm extremely disappointed with all of you. B-)

the same thing, could not believe I got all the way to the bottom without seeing it.... :freak:

:D

Welcome to DU, by the way. :hi:

alcohol & drugs DO affect your ability to concentrate and complete tasks.

So does a steady diet of coffee & cookies.

Romantic relationships can be VERY distracting.

Go to every class.

Have a good idea what you want to do and construct your class schedule in a way that enables you to get it all over with as quick as possible.

Focus on one or two areas that will eventually allow for a good job w/relatively steady & good income. You can change your job in the future if you hate it but at least you'll have something to fall back on.

contacts at school. If you are an introvert like I was, force yourself not to be, at least for the 4 years. You will get more job offers, career opportunities, etc.s from your college friends (and their parents!) than you would ever think possible. Keep an effing ROLODEX of people you meet. I wish I had taken my own advice...

Yes, there are people who have it in for you for no good reason; or maybe their reason is that you are better than them. Accept honest criticism, but throw the rest over your shoulder.

Don't hook up with your co-workers.

Don't try to hook up with your roommates or your co-workers.

Be nice to everyone because you will wind up working with more than one classmate (!).

Talk to an advisor. If the advisor you talk to is useless, get another one.

Make a list of all the classes you need to graduate, and every semester cross a few off the list.

Don't worry about finishing in 4 years.

Switch your major to Soils. You'll be able to get a job when you graduate. Take plant tax and go for the botany minor. You'll be able to get a better job when you graduate.

by not obeying rules 1-3 you might also be throwing away a good thing.

I've seen good things (jobs, friendships) get eaten away by resentment because of these rules. Perhaps this caveat is in order:

Those who are no longer roommates or coworkers are fair game.

Or something like that. I dunno.

with housemates go bad, and I've made moves on co-workers, and both of those are terrible ideas that can easily lead to an uncomfortable living or working situation.

It's just that all relationships have the potential to go bad and there's no magic formula that will make that risk go away. I wish it hadn't taken me so damn long to figure that out.

And hey, you got through it alive. As bad as it hurts to take the risk and see it all go to shit, it doesn't last as long as a case of the if-onlys.

:hug: for being courageous

:bounce:

No one is going to make it for you. Integrity is more important than money. And don't be afraid to take chances.

Vote Democrat!

"Luck is when opportunity meets preparation".

Dont wait for something good to drop out of the sky.Be ready for opportunities that present themselves.

Abandon hope all ye who enter here!

....you never slow down... you never grow old".....Tom Petty

Don't worry about finishing in 4 years-- you may find that the major you originally chose is not what you actually want to do.

Look into a Study Abroad program. Or get a Eurail Pass and cruise around Europe for the summer

Get involved with International Students (most of the international students I met were dying to make American friends)

Study!

Don't get into too much debt. Once you get out of school, the bill collectors will be demanding their money.

or oppresion or injustice. Rely on yourself. Treat all people as though they are willed to goodness, but be pragmatic enough not to trust your life to someone else, and always cover your own ass and do your own due diligence in everything.

Don't do anything I did except for the radical antiwar part. No the main thing besides not binge drinking is to KEEP A SENSE OF HUMOR!!

is to be a jerk. Yes, you'll get that cozy "yes man" job, but the folks you stepped on to get there ALWAYS will rise above you and will NEVER forget how you treated them.

Writer.

oh,

"and it doesn't hurt to have a powerful (dad/uncle/grandfather) who can get you a good job."

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

Always a good piece of advice.

Here's where the fun begins and never ends. :-)

to negotiate and demand what you are worth.

Also..never buy monkeys from a man named Pepe.

than it does to keep up a vendetta or hold a grudge. Forgive and forget--your energy is precious enough.

and we've been lying to you all along!

Find the guy that life hands vodka to, and have a party!

regret the things you did not the things you did not do!

You'll be 50 before you know it, and regretting every oportunity you passed on...

Oh, invest and avoid credit cards.

"Love what you do. Get good at it." http://www.wm.edu/news/index.php?id=3650

"I left the cocoon of Harvard, I left the cocoon of Saturday Night Live, I left the cocoon of The Simpsons. And each time it was bruising and tumultuous. And yet, every failure was freeing, and today I'm as nostalgic for the bad as I am for the good.



So, that's what I wish for all of you: the bad as well as the good. Fall down, make a mess, break something occasionally. And remember that the story is never over. If it's all right, I'd like to read a little something from just this year: "Somehow, Conan O'Brien has transformed himself into the brightest star in the Late Night firmament. His comedy is the gold standard and Conan himself is not only the quickest and most inventive wit of his generation, but quite possible the greatest host ever."



Ladies and Gentlemen, Class of 2000, I wrote that this morning, as proof that, when all else fails, there's always delusion."

Full text at: http://www.february-7.com/features/conan.htm

Somebody gave me this advice when I graduated and it took me almost twenty years to get around to following it. Do as I say and not as I did - learn from me!

Between 'adv' and 'advic' ,I probably choose the former because it's shorter :+

Dont join the Military until GW Bush is out of office

Happiness has to come with the bare minimum. If you say "I will be happy when...I get married, get this job, get that house, get this, do that", once you do get those things, you will always be searching for something else. You have to be the source of your own happiness, others cannot exist for your happiness, and you can't exist for theirs. That makes you whole enough to be part of a healty life.

Take any chance to take a trip.

Find a way to make travel happen before you get bogged down with responsibilities. You can travel on the cheap and earn money along the way. You will never look back and think: "Damn! If only I'd started that office job six months sooner rather than see Europe/Asia/South America etc."

you won't but you should ...

oh yeah, and never, never, never join the military ... if you do, you give up your right to determine when killing and war is acceptable ... and it's never OK to do that ...

To a lot of students, school can seem demanding & stressful plus you are always poor, but it's much easier than the real world. Example: You skip class once to sleep in...it's all good, just get notes from a classmate. In the real world skipping work to sleep in could get you fired.

"Stay out of churches, son. And don't let a priest near you when you're dying. All they got a key to is the shithouse."