What real life is about – commencement speech for HS

There are some things they likely didn’t learn in school.

• 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 lots of money right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a paid car phone until you earn both.
• Rule #4 – If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
• 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 thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s 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 – The dog ate your homework might fly as an excuse in school. Real life, nobody cares about your problems or excuses. Do you think the surgeon who is cutting you open should be excused for botching your surgery because he was upset his dog died that morning or that he up too late drinking the night before? Of course not.
• 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 in the future.

Politically incorrect?  Maybe.
True?  Absolutely!