What we all wish someone had told us

Paul Graham writes an essay intended for high school students - but adults will benefit as well...

When I said I was speaking at a high school, my friends were curious. What will you say to high school students? So I asked them, what do you wish someone had told you in high school? Their answers were remarkably similar. So I'm going to tell you what we all wish someone had told us.

I'll start by telling you something you don't have to know in high school:what you want to do with your life. People are always asking you this, so you think you're supposed to have an answer. But adults ask this mainly as a conversation starter. They want to know what sort of person you are, and this question is just to get you talking. They ask it the way you might poke a hermit crab in a tide pool, to see what it does.

Paul encourages students to stay upwind, addresses ambition, corruption, curiosity...

The only real difference between adults and high school kids is that adults realize they need to get things done, and high school kids don't. That realization hits most people around 23. But I'm letting you in on the secret early. So get to work. Maybe you can be the first generation whose greatest regret from high school isn't how much time you wasted.

check it out for yourself... we're never too old for wisdom What we all wish...

My old Bible study notes from way back when I was a young man myself talks about the other Paul, (Apostle Paul) who being the quintessential mentor to Timothy says: "Let no one despise your youth, but set a good example before them."

The Apostle Paul means setting a good example in the areas of speech and conduct; also three qualities ought to come through -- love, faithfulness, and purity. Those are the things that ought to characterize every young person: loving, faithful, pure speech, and loving, faithful, pure behavior.

Loving means not being arrogant, boastful, rude, critical, cruel or sharp in either word or deed. And he must be faithful and demonstrate integrity to his commitments by being irresponsible, unreliable and breaking promises.

Paul's Advice to Timothy