Every year at this time, thousands of young men and women will take part in high school graduation ceremonies thus marking the end of a chapter in their lives and on to another new and exciting one. No more dealing with all those silly, little rules and regulations of high school, middle and grade school. For many students, college will be in the plans for next fall, others may join the military or immediately join the workforce. Along with this transition comes a lot more responsibilities and making good decisions which could influence the rest of your life. If someone you knew was about to graduate from high school and wanted some advice, what would you tell them? I would like to share some of my own advice to any high school senior.
1. Set short and long term goals for yourself. Lets face it, most 18 years are probably very undecided on what type of career they would like to pursue. What are you very passionate about? Maybe it helping others or doing social work, a nursing career could be right for you. Perhaps you have a passion for fixing cars, there is always a demand for automotive techs. I think it is very important to pursue something that you have a passion for. Sure some counselor may tell you that there is great demand for a particular field but why go into that field if you are not interested? Why spend 40 plus hours per week on a career that you hate? Life is way too short for that. Setting goals for yourself is very important if you are going to college. If you are going into business, what part of business excites you? It could be that you are very interested in marketing or management. Perhaps it is finance and accounting that grabs your attention. Whatever the case, setting goals early on can make the college experience very enjoyable. It also may occur while taking some of your early classes that you decide to change your major. It happened to me before I started my junior year and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
2. College is not for everyone. I certainly recommend going to college and earning a 4 year degree because it makes you so much more marketable. However, there are many good alternatives to going to a college. There are many good technical schools which can help you develop skills necessary to get a good, high paying job and you can graduate in only a couple of years. I see many college graduates working at Burger King and in this day and age, having a 4 year college degree is no guarantee of getting a good job plus you accumulate a lot of debt.
3. Learn good verbal and written skills. Being able to communicate both verbally and in writing is so important in this day and age. In most jobs, you are communicating with your co-workers and customers either in person, on the phone or using email. Learning how to communicate effectively separates many job applicants from landing a good job. Get rid of that slang and bad habits that you develop from texting. Take some good writing and even speech classes in college.
4. Be wise about your new friends. If you go off to college, you will meet a whole new group of people and while it is great and very healthy to expand your network of friends, watch out for those who might be a bad influence on you. Some of them may encourage you to go to parties and drink with them even though it is against your convictions. Making poor decisions about alcohol, other drugs and sex can ruin any young person’s life at such an early age.
5. Be wise about money. One of the first major responsibilities after graduating from high school is with money. I shake my head in disbelief when I hear about credit card companies trying to give cards to students. Developing the discipline to stick to a budget is so important for any recent high school grad.
Those are just a few words of advice that I would give any high school graduate. I know how excited many are to take that next big step in their lives. That day that you have been dreaming about for years is finally here! I want to wish the best of luck to all the high school graduates out there in whatever future plans you may have.
Mark's Views 