If a student (or child) came up to you and asked what "real-life" is going be like, what would you tell them?
If a college student asked what life will be like, I would tell them that it’s only as hard as you make it. You can pick your battles in life – that’s a hard lesson to learn but a very important one! I have also learned that no matter how much you try to not let money influence your life, it does. I’ve heard time and time again that “you don’t need money to be happy.” That’s true, but it sure does help! I never really thought about it until this point because I always had what I wanted – I could ask my parents for clothes or CD or spending money or whatever and we always went on vacations. I never really reflected on the items that I had and what it would be like if I had to choose between paying the rent or going on vacation. Not that I’m poor now, but I’m just not as established as my parents are and in the adult work there are a lot of needs that must come before the wants. ** I must say that I sound like a brat when you read what I’ve written about my childhood but honestly, I was always grateful for my upbringing. I just never connected the dots and realized that my parents were probably making significant sacrifices to give me the things that I wanted.
Back to my previous statement “life is only as hard as you make it.” I have learned three valuable lessons: pick your battles, choose good partners (friends, family, and business), and don’t procrastinate.
Pick your battles – A prime example of this happened yesterday, when Comcast decided to change our channels over from analog to digital. Because of this, we lost numerous channels and are stuck with either 10 high definition channels or 30 regular channels, after we bought a high def television! I called them up in a huff and what did they say, “Well we can’t help you because that’s in our policy that we can change viewing stations and no, you can’t cancel unless you pay a $150 cancellation fee.” WTF! So I decided that instead of fighting a battle that I can’t win and being emotionally upset about it, I would decide not to care and would not use Comcast once I moved. There are multiple examples of “pick your battles” but this one still pisses me off, so I thought I’d share. I don’t think I know one person who actually likes Comcast by the way!
Choose good partners – I don’t mean like “life partners” although I’m not opposed to homosexuality at all. I just want to be clear that when I say partners, I talking friends, family (whomever you choose to bring into your already existing family), and business partners, pretty much anyone you have in your life by choice. This is the one area in life where you really have the opportunity to be picky and make sure that your choices affect you in a positive way. I feel like I have had many different opportunities to choose a person who would be a positive addition to my life and a person who would be a negative addition. In the past, especially high school, I picked the person who would be a negative influence for the simple reason that they always seemed to be having more fun. They had access to items that I shouldn’t have had access to and they were willing to share. Now, looking back I regret those decisions. I wish I had more friends and people who really cared about me, in a way I realize that I lost my chance with the positive people and I feel isolated and alone. I once had this friend named Jenna who lived on the wild side a bit and another friend named Nicole who was a little quieter and always cared what people thought. I felt had to decided (another big mistake, why can’t you be friends with more than one person?) who I wanted to be friends with; I picked Jenna. She had older guy friends, drank a bit, and had unlimited amounts of pot. She was a lot of fun to hang out with but I somehow knew that we would move past the surface fun and realize that we didn’t have a true friendship. Sure enough, we did and I ended up friendless. This happened so many times in my life at this point that I can’t even count them all!
Don’t Procrastinate – This lesson was very simple; I figured out early on that if you don’t procrastinate then you have more time to fix mistakes if you should make them! I always try to get my work done early because then if I hear that I need to add, change, or redo something, I have time and I still meet the “due dates.”
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Real life is a lot like high school.
ReplyDeleteIn high school, there are always people who don't do any more than they have to do. This is true in the "real world" and your workplace. Sometimes, the other person's laziness reflects badly on you and you have to deal with it, just like in high school.
In high school, there are bullies. In the real world, there are bullies. In your workplace, you will encounter people who are verbally abusive and belligerant to you or others. Now, you aren't in high school so you might be able to make this kind of behavior stop. It's possible the bully doesn't realize how he/she comes across and might be grateful for a kind word that says "hey, tone it down."
In high school, there were always people who dressed inappropriately (read: like sluts). You will find these people in the workplace, too. Take the higher road and be known for your accomplishments and not your amazing cleavage.
In high school, there are always people who are on the fringes of life and too shy to participate. You'll find people like this in real life, too. Now that you're not in high school and no one will say you're a geek if you talk to those people, go over and have a conversation. You might find that best friend/soul mate you didn't know you were searching for.
High school wasn't always fair. Sometimes, the whole class was punished when only one person really deserved it. Life can be like that, too. Just like you did in high school though, keep your head up and just keep doing the best you can do.