High-school seniors across the nation will soon be bombarded with advice from parents, teachers and/or commencement speakers. Here’s what we at Graceworx would like to say to all graduates:
1. Remember, old people (between 30 and death) rule the world. Your parents rule your home. Your teachers rule your classrooms. Your boss will rule your workplace. And the US Constitution says no one under 35 can be president.
So don’t fight it. Just learn to give the old rulers what they want. And if your performance is impressive and fate smiles on you, you might get your hands on a little power even before you’ve become an old person.
2. Let compounding interest work wonders for you. Money won’t bring happiness, but the absence of money can bring misery. So, learn the miracle of compounding interest.
If at age 18 you invest $2,000 in an S&P index fund, and if you reinvest all the dividends, and if the market yields the same average annual return it has for the past 100 years, you’ll have a retirement nest egg at age 72 of $500,000—just from that one-time $2,000 investment! But $2,000 invested at age 25 will yield only $250,000 by age 72. So don’t wait.
3. Become fluent in at least one foreign language.
Learning another language requires work. But the world is increasingly a global community. Most immigrants learn English – plus they already spoke their native tongue.
Although they arrive disadvantaged, they soon become linguistically advantaged. And that often translates into financial advantage. Plus, knowing another language broadens your outlook on life.
4. Take care of your health. Studies suggest that the average American male is starting downhill at 19. The average female starts deteriorating at 14. But you don’t have to be average.
Eat a balanced diet, shun junk food, get adequate rest, exercise regularly, limit exposure to the sun, avoid alcohol, tobacco and recreational drugs – and you can put off most physical deterioration for at least another 30 years. But let yourself go, and it’s almost impossible to recapture what you’ve lost.
5. Read widely. Over the centuries some rather smart people have written some rather important things in some rather clever ways. Knowing what they said and how they said it will be extremely helpful in college. Guaranteed. And it will make life in general a lot more interesting.
6. Don’t let religion ruin your life. Now, coming from a church, that’s not exactly what you’d expect to hear.
Here are the facts: Too many religions control adherents through fear. People are never sure they’ve satisfied God (or the gods). Thus, they never truly experience spiritual peace and joy.
Religion shouldn’t make us miserable, scared or bored. So don’t settle for anything less than an energizing, affirming, upbeat approach to things spiritual – what Jesus called the “abundant” life (John 10:10).
Conclusion: Graduates, congratulations! You face a unique window of opportunity. Take full advantage of it.
(The foregoing article was adapted from an op-ed by Pastor Jim Coffin that appeared in the Orlando Sentinel on May 20, 2005.)
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