Advice for High School Graduates

My hometown newspaper, the Binghamton (NY) Press & Sun-Bulletin, asked if I had some thoughts on "things I wish someone told me in a commencement speech." I knocked out a quick 10-point list, and much to my surprise the paper ran it and put it on the Press Web site.

So I figured I'd share it here...

1. Once you start working, no one will care what your grades were in high school, whether you were popular, or whether you starred on the football team. Your success will be based on who you become going forward, not who you are now.

2. That's especially good news for anybody who didn't get good grades, was not popular, or was not a star jock.

3. If you become a writer, a marketer, a businessman or a politician, you will never again find a use for what you learned in chemistry or calculus. If you become a scientist, you'll still need what you learned in English because you still have to be able to read and write. English teachers should be paid more.

4. The music you like now, you will still be listening to when you're 50.

5. If you had at least one teacher that you will keep in touch with after today, you are fortunate.

6. Look around, make a mental note of your four best friends, and do whatever it takes to stay in touch with them for the rest of your lives.

7. Sometime after you leave for college, at least one of your parents will sit in your room alone and cry. If it's your dad, he'll never tell anyone.

8. P.E. was a waste of time. If we're talking about something that would've helped you for the rest of your life, that time would've been better spent taking music lessons.

9. Approximately 90 percent of you will look nothing like you do now in 20 years. Approximately 2 percent of you will look better. Sorry.

10. Hold onto your yearbook. It gets funnier and funnier as the years pass.