Be yourself. Choose friends that are positive. As far as chicks go. Don't get wrapped up in the g/f b/f craziness. QUANTITY, not quality. You're not marrying any of these chicks, so just enjoy yourself and figure out the qualities you like in chicks for later in life. Also keep an open mind and learn as much as you can inside and outside of school while you have the shelter of your parents home. Tell your parents you love them often and you will see them grant you more freedoms. Don't try to battle the world, the system, or the man, they're all bigger than you and you will lose. Focus your time on improving yourself. If you want to stand up for something, identify the proper forums for it, and stand up properly. You're going to have good teachers. You're going to have bad teachers. Stay in touch with the good ones. Bite your lip and get through the bad ones. When you party, make sure you have a plan (that was created when your sober). Don't drive drunk. Teenagers are already bad drivers, don't bring alcohol into that. If your drunk, don't be afraid to call a cab, or a your parents for a ride. Don't ride with drunk buddies. Keep on top of your limits. Not everyone can drink as much as everyone else. Drugs affect everyone differently and they can even affect the same person differently at different times. If you want to experiment with them, save it for the time in your life AFTER you've gotten into college, which by the way is your MAIN focus for high school. Do all your work when it's assigned. Procrastination only leads to more stress and a bigger job. Take care of your body. Eat healthy. Exercise. Don't go through puberty and get fat from eating crap. If your fat now, start exercising now. You have a chance to reinvent yourself. Show up to school a better version of your former self. Also being positive and friendly always gets you farther than being emo, complicated, and moody. Especially with the chicks. Don't be afraid to have your own opinion different than someone else or everyone else. If you do have a different opinion learn to respect others and their opinion. Read the Man Laws. Many of them will come into play now. Good luck kid.
Wow. That post was amazing. I'm being serious Maki - that actually almost made a tear come to my eye! So much truth, and delivered in such a fashion - it is like you are the coach just before the big match!
Also, from reading this thread it sounds like American high schools are much more harsh and cliquey that English ones.
My tips:
1) Work hard. I didn't and I only just got away with it - I missed the minimum grades I needed to get into college by 1 mark (1 mark!), and ended up having to phone up and plead with them to let me in. The 5 hour wait that I had before they called me back was the worst 5 hours of my life. Seriously. Avoid it at all costs.
2) Play hard
2a) Girls - treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen. Tease them - they love it (not too much though - you don't want to make them cry). Don't become their ***** - if they have you running to the shops to get them a drink then something is wrong. Don't give up - I know Maki is always saying 'quantity not quality', but I chased my gf for 2 years before she finally gave in and said yes. I've been with her since then (3 years), and it has been amazing.
2b) Drink - The drinking age is lower over here, so I don't know whether attitudes are different. But we always had 1 or 2 people who would get completely and totally smashed at EVERY party. They were doing it for attention, and because they thought that it was cool.
And whilst we all thought that it was cool the first couple of times, and it was great fun telling the stories, it quickly became old. "Ha ha ha! Did you see James on Friday? He was WASTED! I heard he was sick 4 times and lost his jeans!" turned into "Oh god - did you see James on Friday? He was smashed as usual. I had to walk him home again, and he was sick on my shoes. I'm fed up of this". Also, it turned out that the people who were getting smashed all the time actually had some pretty bad confidence issues, and they were drinking to boost their confidence.
Be kind to drunk people, and look after drunk friends - one day, you will want them to look after you. Always make sure you have a plan for a party - someone to walk home with, someone to drive you home (sober), someone to pick you up, whatever. One of the worst things in the world is being quite drunk and not having a way to get home (or not being able to remember the way home).
2c) Drugs - I have managed to avoid drugs so far in my life. I would say try to do the same, but you might decide that you want to try. If you do, make sure you have clean friends who can tell you if you go too deep, and help to pull you out.
2d) Random stuff - Don't be afraid to do anything, although you should exercise some common sense here - there is some stuff that you shouldn't do, but I'll leave that up to you. I will give you some tips that come from my personal experiences to help you though:
- NEVER lock your knees when landing - bend them to absorb the shock
- The fumes from burning plastic are toxic
- Dance whenever possible - most people will think that you look stupid, but then the people who are worth something will also see that you have the self-confidence to look stupid and laugh about it at the same time
- If you are going to do shots of non-alcoholic substances, exercise caution. Soy sauce, Tabasco, vinegar and salt water are probably fine. Washing-up liquid could kill you. Ask someone who knows before you ingest anything that isn't normally ingested by itself/at all. Keep a bucket handy for the sick (this also applies if you will be ingesting ridiculous amounts of anything - milk comes to mind immediately).
- Say yes to anything and everything that looks like it could be advantageous in the future
- Wear a helmet when appropriate
- If there is more than a slim chance that you will be caught doing something illegal, don't do it
- If it looks like it will break/collapse then don't climb it
- Gaffer tape/duck tape is very useful. Always make sure you have a roll somewhere
- If anything is funny, or just cool, film/photograph it. That way you will have something to look back on in the future. There used to be an awesome video of me and my friends learning all the lessons above, which got accidentally taped over - I wish it was still in existence. I also don't have enough photos from when I was at high school.
Oh, and finally, save some money, and when you finish school, go on holiday with your friends. I went on one when I was 16, which was cool, but also one when I was 18, right at the end of school. I have some amazing memories of it, and luckily I also have some photos to prove it.
).
)
