We spend all our youth life in school, sometimes we spend more time school than at home. Our teachers become our guiders. Our school friends become our family. We spend 13 years of our life in school, more if we choose. We spend 4 years in high school where they get us ready to go on to college and face adult life. They send us off into the adult world with everything we learned in our minds. We go from being guided to having to guide ourselves. We say bye to our friends who were like family. Some we will never see again. We do all this, and do we really learn anything we need for college? Anything we really, truly need? I can tell you every capital of every state in the U.S., I have the periodic table of elements memorized, I can find the derivative of functions, I know all of this, and more, but I don’t even know how to change a tire. They never taught me how to stay up all night writing an English paper then be ready to go for my 8 A.M. class the next day. They never taught me how to deal with having to put my heart back together after a bad break up. Things I didn’t learn in school that I wish I would have:
1. How to get a good deal, because God knows I never do
2. How to balance a check book
3. How to coupon, the extra money would help me through the days of Ramen
4. How to build credit, I need credit for everything but no one wants to give me a chance to get credit
5. How to file taxes
Can’t mom still do this forever?
6. How to get a loan
7. How to manage money
I only spend $30 a day on going out to eat, how do I have no money?
8. How to get a credit card, wait you have to pay that back?
9. How to rent/buy a house
You need renter’s history for that? Wait, what?
10. How to network
What is that?
11. How to make a resume
Is getting my tweet to fit the character limit counted as a skill?
12. How to give a two weeks notice
13. How to dress for an interview, are jeans acceptable?
14. How to ask for a letter of recommendation
15. How to organize a fundraiser
16. How to join/start a club
17. How to manage/balance life
Is that even possible?
18. How to get insurance
Wait, I can’t stay on my parents forever?
19. How to get a passport
$170 to be able to leave the country?!
20. How to change phone providers
I’m sorry it’s just not working out...
21. What to claim on your W2
What even is a W2?
22. How to get a new social security card
Can’t they just send me a new one?
23. How to get a lawyer
24. How to schedule a visit to the doctor
Can’t mom still do that?
25. How to meal prep/follow a recipe
When it says two tablespoons does that just mean two finger pinches?
26. How to ask for a raise
If I stare at my boss long enough do you think she’ll get the message?
27. How to rent a car
Um there are age restrictions on this? Since when?
28. How to change a tire
Can I just call someone for that?
29. How to buy a car
30. How to change the oil on a car
Can I just take it in to a shop? Wait, $50?
31. How to get a bus pass
Maybe I’ll just walk..
32. How to do laundry
Red and whites can’t mix?
Most important of all:
33. How to be a good friend
34. How to get over the loss of a loved one
35. How to fix a broken heart
Will super glue work?
36. How to deal with emotional issues
This is a tough one..
37. How to make new friends
38. How to think for yourself
39. How to voice your opinion
40. How to protect yourself
41. How to love others
42. How to love yourself
43. How to accept love
44. How to appreciate others
45. How to accept others
46. How to accept yourself
47. How to ask for help
48. How to ask for what you want
49. How to embrace life
50. How to be happy
This is the most important one of all.
All these things are such important things to know how to do but yet know one taught us any of it, we spent so much time in school learning about everything else we forgot to get taught basic life skills. School taught me so much, but there is so much I wish it could have taught me. Life 101, now that’s a class I would take.
