Observation No. 2: Most likely to...

Now that I have been out of school as long as I was in school I look back and see if high school was any predictor of the future. If you knew me in high school you would probably say I was most likely to scare young children! I was not conforming all the while conforming to the group that was not conforming. Seems silly now, you don't fit in with the jocks or the preps so you form your own group of kids that are into punk music and skateboards and feel like you are not conforming, but everyone in your group looks the same so you are belonging to a click and conforming to their uniform of choice.

I was never officially voted as most likely to anything because I dropped out and got my diploma from the community college. Now that I have almost teen kids I think back and wonder what my parents were thinking about me during those teen years. Did they shake their head and wonder where they went wrong? I asked the question last year of my mother and father. Did I turn out like you expected me to? The answer was not as profound and deep as I had hoped. Maybe I caught them on a bad day or they did not have time to think about the question properly.

I think high school in no predictor at all of how you will turn out in life. You are so inexperienced at life, you have no clue who you are, and you are struggling to find where you fit in. Then right after high school you are asked to make one of the most profound decisions of your life, where do you want to go to college and what do you want to study. This decision affects the rest of your life and you are in no way prepared to make that decision. I think the system is flawed. Look at all the people that totally waste college finding themselves and partying. As a result they end up with a squandered education and a degree in something that they will never hold a job in. Wasted money, wasted time, wasted education. So what is the alternative? Take time off from school work a couple jobs figure out who you are and what you like then go to school and pursue that with all you have.

Did the star Quarterback at your high school go on to be an NFL star? Did the homecoming queen go on to be a model or movie star? Did the nerd go on to host Star Trek conventions? Did the skater go on to be Tony Hawk? Likely none of these people stayed on their respective paths. I deviated off my punk rock/rebellion path soon after high school and went on to be what most would consider a normal human being. How can you decided what you want to be when you grow up if you don't know yourself well enough to decide?

I want to encourage my children to explore who they are, what their talents are, and what they really enjoy and then decided what they want to do for the rest of their lives.

What were you voted most likely to be and how far from that are you now?