When I was in high school there was a poster up on one teacher's classroom wall that said something like, "In twenty years it won't matter what brand of pants you wore, it will matter the education you had."
I know that walking through the classroom seeing that, I never thought that it could be true. I thought that the person you were in high school was the person you were going to be for the rest of your life. The status you held then, meant something for the rest of your life. I wasn't the most popular girl in high school, I didn't hold a high status above other girls, but I also wasn't unpopular. Even with that, I was always concerned about what brand of pants I was wearing, where I got my shirts from, and what label was showing. I always had to look a certain way and I always felt as if I was being judged or watched to see when I would mess up.
But when I got to college I was in for a rude awakening. I thought that when I got to college I needed to work hard to be the popular girl, or even just to be the same girl that I was in high school. Instead, I was able to recreate myself into a brand new person and not worry about people looking at me and judging me. It wasn't until I got to college that I realized the poster I read all those years in school was actually true. All of these college kids are thrifting at Salvation Army and Goodwill to find warm sweaters instead of shopping at a high-end store. We just can't afford that here. Almost all college kids are struggling to make ends meet so that popularity status that people would strive for in high school means nothing here in college.
Instead of worrying about what brand of clothes you're wearing in high school if your hair is perfect that day, or what status you're holding as you walk down those halls of your high school, you should be focusing on our grades. As cliche as that sounds, it's true. The things you understand in high school will help you when you get to college. Those concepts that you find so irrelevant now, will be useful in the future. The GPA and ACT score you earn in high school can help you with scholarships for college. Those expensive jeans or brand name clothes aren't going to get you a scholarship. So when your family or teachers tell you that same saying "the clothes you wear today aren't going to matter 20 years from now" you better believe that saying is true.
