13 rules you did not learn in school

13 rules you did not learn in school Here are some basic rules that children should be learning in  school, but unfortunately dont. Not all of these have to do with academics.Rule #1: Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teen-ager uses the  phrase, Its not fair 8.6 times a day.Rule #2: The real world wont care as much about your self-esteem as much  as your school does. Itll expect you to accomplish something before you  feel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflated  self-esteem meets reality, kids complain its not fair. Rule #3: Sorry, you wont make $40,000 a year right out of high school.  And you wont be a vice president or have a car phone either. You may even  have to wear a uniform that doesnt have a label.Rule #4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He  doesnt have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, hes  not going to ask you how you feel about it.Rule #5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grand-parents  had a different word of burger flipping. They called it opportunity. They  werent embarrassed making minimum wage either. They would have been  embarrassed to sit around talking about Kurt Cobain all weekend.Rule #6: Its not your parents fault. If you screw up, you are  responsible. This is the flip side of Its my life, and Youre not the  boss of me, and other eloquent proclamations of your generation. When you  turn 18, its on your dime. Dont whine about it, or youll sound like a  baby boomer.Rule #7: Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life  hasnt. In some schools, theyll give you as many times as you want to get  the right answer. Failing grades have been abolished and class  valedictorians scrapped, lest anyones feelings be hurt. Effort is as  important as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance  to anything in real life.Rule #8: Life is not divided into semesters, and you dont get summers  off. Not even Easter break. They expect you to show up every day. For eight  hours. And you dont get a new life every 10 weeks. It just goes on and on.  While were at it, very few jobs are interesting in fostering your  self-expression or helping you find yourself. Fewer still lead to  self-realization.Rule #9: Television is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom. Your  problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials.  In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to jobs.  Your friends will not be as perky or pliable as Jennifer Aniston.Rule #10: Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all  could.Rule #11: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic.  Next time youre out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his  mouth. Thats what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for expressing  yourself with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.Rule #12: You are not immortal. If you are under the  impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a b eautiful corpse is  romantic, you obviously havent seen one of your peers at room temperature  lately.Rule #13: Enjoy your youth time while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school is a  bother and life is depressing but someday youll realize how wonderful it  was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now.By Charles J. Sykes Printed in San Diego Union Tribune September 19, 1996