To My Awesome 8th Graders:
As you head into high school, you will learn many of life's lessons on your own. Chances are your heart will be broken at least once, you’ll wonder how someone trusted you enough to put you behind the wheel of a car, and you’ll learn what the outside world is like when you get your first job. Since I won’t be next to you to hold your hand through those times, here is my list of lessons for you.
Don’t get good grades to benefit your future. That sounds like bad advice, right? Let me explain. I think there is too much focus, during the high school years, on the future. Get good grades now so that you will be able to go to a good college. Do well in college so that you will be able to get a good job. Get a good job so that you will be able to feel successful in life. At a minimum, that first job is eight years from now! Instead, why not do well now because it feels good to do well? Do well now because you want to be successful in life NOW. Don’t worry so much about the future. Focus on the present. Focus on how it feels to show up to class with homework completed. Focus on how it feels to get good grades on tests because you studied. Focus on your present success and the future will take care of itself.
Ask for help. You will not get far in life alone. If you think success means going it alone, you will have a hard time being successful. Asking for help does not mean you are lacking in something, it means you want to succeed in something.
People will remember. Let me sum up what Maya Angelou, a very cool poet, said about this: People will forget what you said and what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. You will be surprised at how your actions in high school will have an impact on people’s lives. How do you want them to remember you twenty-five years from now? If you have treated them well, they will remember that. If you treated them poorly, I promise you that they will remember it.
You are more important than your friends. I won’t get into the concepts of peer pressure. I am talking about something a bit different. If someone is asking you to do something that you know will decrease you as a person, or will lower your standards of who you are, you are putting them in front of you. Doing this will not be good for you and won’t be good for your friend.
You are more mature and thoughtful than most adults will ever understand. The biggest compliment I receive from middle and high school students is when they tell me that I really “get them.” I think they mean that I have taken the time to understand them as a person and don’t dismiss their thoughts and feelings. For many adults, this is quite difficult to do. Your parents, especially, will want to think of you as a little kid, because you are their baby and always will be. They don’t mean to be insulting. They just haven’t gotten used to the fact that you are becoming an adult. Be patient with them. Just don’t take it personally when you feel demeaned or belittled by adults. They don’t yet understand how complex and mature you truly have become.
Believe. Believe you matter … all of you learned that even a 13- or 14-year-old can make a difference in the world. Even a little act of kindness can make someone’s day. I believe that YOU can make a difference in the world.
So, my children, it is time that I let you go. Time to let you fly. Time to share you with the high school teachers. I keep telling them how much they are going to love you guys next year. I know you must move on, but please remember what I always say, "Spin Kid Forever."
Remember to come to visit me next year, and don’t forget ... show respect, own it, be kind, and BRING IT!!
I LOVE YOU GUYS
Spin
