INTRODUCTION

This is a “Learn from my mistakes” type blog. I’ve made a lot of mistakes growing up through high school, so I have decided to share them with you. The point of this post and the several others that will follow, is to inform you of which mistakes I made.

Eleanor Roosevelt put it just right,

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”

Phil Knight, founder of Nike once said,

“The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few.”

Now even Phil Knight, probably a millionaire or even a trillionaire by now, realizes the importance of learning from other peoples mistakes. I’m sure his company has done plenty of things wrong, as well as learned from these mistakes. If you were planning on starting a business, you wouldn’t just go and start a business without first researching what exactly you need to and not to do.

As a high schooler, you feel as if the rest of your life, your adult life, is so far away! But be careful, before you know it high school will be over and it will be decision time. College or no college. Thats really the only thing teachers will warn you about. Do your teachers tell you “although high school seems rough at times, its nothing like what college will be for you”? At least for me, in high school, almost all my teachers would alert us “we are doing it this way to prepare you for college”. Now I wasn’t the best student in high school (which i regret completely) but I did do all of my work (well… most of it) and absolutely none of my high school curriculum prepared me for any of what I have to do in college.

Sometimes I wonder if the teachers really do feel like they are preparing us. Maybe after a whole year of students dropping out, not applying for colleges, and some kids going to jail, they go home and weep. Cry about how they’ve failed, and wonder why they even chose teaching as a career. Its either that or they just dont care. Most of my teachers were too caught up with being Mr. Cool-Guy.

If your going to be a teacher, learn from their mistakes. (I laugh as writing that) But thats not the point, the point is that I might not be the most messed up college-aged male in the world, but throughout my Christian life I have made more mistakes then what would be easily believable. And even though I have learned from many mistakes, I’m still making some, that one day I might write to the new-age college-aged kids.

PART 1: DON’T TAKE HIGH SCHOOL FOR GRANTED

To say I tried really hard in high school would be, well, half true (maybe just a quarter true). At some points during high school I really did put my best foot forward, but just one good foot is not enough. High school (if you went to a public school) is basically free! School fees at high school are the same they were in elementary school, SUPER CHEAP! On top of that, if you start off doing really well in high school, you can do post-secondary and goto college for free, while still in high school, like Adam Esterle. He will almost be a sophomore his freshman year of college.

On top of that, basically to be almost prepared for college, you have to have done very well in high school. Its as “simple as dat” as Kid Cudi would say. Because I didn’t fully take advantage of everything offered in high school, I’ve struggled through my first semester and am already doing the same this semester. Their is homework every night, more than I’ve ever had. (Point is college is tough for me. What was my mistake? I took high school for granted).

Did you know that college is very expensive? Tuition for my first year at Kent was already $8,430. On top of that you have to buy books for all your classes, this semester (not including last semester) totaled something around $230. Also, every semester the school you are enrolled in also has a fee (I am enrolled in the College of Business at Kent State), the fee for my school was $60. Most classes have small fees, and so on. But know this, if you do amazing in high school you most likely wont have to pay a dollar for school. There are many scholarships available that will cover your whole tuition as long as you put some effort towards earning them. Some of them you need to write essays for, explaining why you want it, or why your a good candidate. But overall its not that hard.

A few tips…

1. If your a senior, your already late at applying to colleges, but if you have applied, do your FAFSA now (even if you are rich, there are scholarship opportunities waiting for you just for filling out some online paperwork
   1. If you’ve done terrible all of high school and dont even understand how you are even considered for graduation, college might now be for you just yet, take a year off (contrary to popular belief) it might be harder to start back at school, but you need some time to get focused, make some money to pay for school and so on…
2. If your a junior, this summer start applying to college
3. If your a sophomore and have been taking high school for granted, you still have time to turn everything around, get focused, get a planner, do all your homework, and put the most effort you ever have in school
4. If your a freshman, its only your second quarter of high school, your 100% safe right now if you got straight F’s your first semester. Rethink what you’ve been doing wrong and do better!
5. If your a high schooler, read this post, ask questions to people older than you who have done everything you have, don’t look at college like you have to figure out everything for yourself, be humble, let some people help!