An Open Letter to High School Students in America

11.17.01

You will find that the moment you walk out of here for the last time will be a moment of epiphanies. When you leave high school and enter the real world, you'll have a number of realizations. One of these realizations is that grades were not THAT important. Educators treat High School as preparation for college. Not all of you were cut out for college. It does not devalue you; it's just a fact. If your grades really, unbelievably suck, and you're taking Algebra A your senior year, you might want to consider a community college or working in the family business. For those of you that spend six hours a night on homework, get a life. Really, I mean it. You'll benefit much more from a social life than from that extra .02 GPA. You're high school teachers are not expecting THAT much from you, and if they are, they really shouldn't be taking themselves that seriously. Colleges will look at your GPA and your class rank. If they like what they see, they may delve further into your records, but if they like what they see, you're already in, anyway. How much you excel beyond their expectations for entering freshmen will correspond with how much financial aid you receive, but if you invest all of your four high school years in academics, you'll have wasted four years of your life. After you leave high school, you'll also find yourself regretting everything you did in high school. You'll realize that everything you did in your four years of high school was a mistake. That's okay, because even if you did waste those four years, it was only four years of your life. You're sure to screw up a lot more of your life in the years to come. Still you'll realize just what an ass you were to your teachers and how incredible they were for putting up with you, the meager salary, and the disrespect, and then tried to teach you something. You'll also realize what a complete jerk you were to other students. You'll realize just how stupid it was for you to be in a clique, when there were so many interesting personalities that you simply shut out. Still, you'll realize how you survived high school by being a part of a clique and wearing the right brand of clothing. There is nothing more trivial than the 'right' brand of clothing. You'll realize how important the members of that clique were to you. But, only after you have left high school will you appreciate the importance of friendship. In college, if you don't get caught up in the booze, sex, and drugs, you'll make better, more meaningful, and lasting relationships than you ever had in high school. Let me encourage you to set aside the search for sex and the ultimate high, which is how you spend your high school years anyway, and pursue those relationships that are only readily available to you in college. I would encourage you to take advantage of the people around you in high school, now, but I know that you will never as high school students appreciate the value of those people. To those of you whom have no friends in high school and spend most of your spare time thinking up new and more twisted ways of ending your own lives, let me say, again, "High School isn't real, and it's only four years." It sounds like poor consolation, but hang in there; there is life after high school. Life gets so much better after graduation. Someone lied to me once. As an exiting eighth-grader, he told me that high school was going to be the best four years of my life. That's a load of crap if I've ever smelled it. High school is going to suck in varying degrees for everyone, but you will graduate as long as you don't self-terminate. As all things, high school has a beginning and an ending. It only has power over you for four years, and then, it's over. Make the best of it. Use drugs as needed to escape the pain. You can always detox later. Let me digress just a second to say that I say these things with a degree of tongue and cheek. Find a clique to be a part of. Assimilate. Sacrifice individuality for sanity. Make friends anyway you can. Avoid being the center of attention; your peers are wolves. It's inescapable; high school is going to suck. It may in fact be the worst four years of your life, but it's only four years. You'll have many more, again, if you don't self-destruct. Survive any way you can. Just, don't shoot any wolves. To the wolves, I say this as a precaution, not a threat. Your day is done. We live in the age of Columbine. Bullies can no longer systematically abuse and torture the weaker kids without fear of reprisal. The weaker kids are smarter and desperate. They will take desperate and strategic measures to defend themselves. If you shove them, they will not shove back. They know they are weaker. They are smarter. They know they can't win a fight. They know the only way they can stop you from shoving them is to kill you. I would tell you to be nice, but I doubt that will have any more effectiveness than when your parents and teachers told you. So, I will leave it at this. If you're jerks to each other today, you might be in a pine box tomorrow. So, be good to each other, damnit! Your lives depend on it; all our lives depend on it. Someday, a smarter and weaker kid than any before will come, and he'll pull the ultimate Columbine. He'll build a bomb to kill us all, because you couldn't learn this simple lesson to PLAY NICE!

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