The Rules of Life - Three Lists
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.
25 things you'll need to know after high school
by Emery Styron, Publisher, Mount Pleasant (Iowa) News
1. Don't sweat the small stuff, and remember, most stuff is small.
2. The most boring word in any language is "I."
3. Nobody is indispensable, especially you.
4. Life is full of surprises. Just say "never" and you'll see.
5. People are more important than things.
6. Persistence will get you almost anything eventually.
7. Nobody can make you happy. Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
8. There's so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us that it doesn't behoove any of us to talk about the rest of us.
9. Live by what you trust, not by what you fear.
10. Character counts. Family matters.
11. Eating out with small children isn't worth it, even if someone else is buying.
12. If you wait to have kids until you can afford them, you probably never will.
13. Baby kittens don't begin to open their eyes for six weeks after birth. Men generally take about 26 years. (Ed. note: Some take 35 years.)
14. The world would run a lot smoother if more men knew how to dance.
15. Television ruins more minds than drugs.
16. Sometimes there is more to gain in being wrong than right.
17. Life is so much simpler when you tell the truth.
18. People who do the world's real work don't usually wear neckties.
19. A good joke beats a pill for a lot of ailments.
20. There are no substitutes for fresh air, sunshine and exercise.
21. A smile is the cheapest way to improve your looks, even if your teeth are crooked.
22. May you live life so there is standing room only at your funeral.
23. Mothers always know best, but sometimes fathers know, too.
24. Forgive yourself, your friends and your enemies. You're all only human.
25. If you don't do anything else in life, love someone and let someone love you.
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.
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