Things School Won't Teach You

In school, or at least in the school systems I was a part of, we learned things based on the Standards of Learning. We had to be taught a certain criteria every year that would later show up on that test that every student in the county had to take. How smart we were was based on our grades and what college we went to was based on things like our grade point average and what extracurricular activities we took part in.

I file all of that away with the cell phones and clothes and make-up that we can't take with us when we die. I value education. But I also value life experience. The things that won't be on exams or in text books. The things we learn by living through them. So, without further ado, here are some things [some from other people and some from me] that school will not teach you. Let's just pretend these are the titles or intros to the book of life:

1. Don't settle.

Don't finish crappy books.

If you don't like the menu, leave the restaurant.

If you're not on the right path, get off it.

- Chris Brogan

2. Believing that the dots will connect down the road

will give you the confidence to follow your heart,

even when it leads you off the well worn path.

- Steve Jobs

3. Sometimes it's better to react with no reaction.

4. If we wait until we're ready

We'll be waiting for the rest of our lives.

- Lemony Snicket

5. Be brave.

Take risks.

Nothing can substitute experience.

6. The only way to succeed,

is to not worry about what anyone else is doing.

7. Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain.

8. It's supposed to be hard.

If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it.

The hard it what makes it great.

- A League Of Their Own

9. Fall nine times, get up ten.

10. Always say, "I love you."