5 Lessons You Learned In High School That You Never Realized You’d Use In The Real World

High school was supposed to be a place where you learned new and important things from adults. However, if your high school experience was anything like mine, you often found yourself asking “Why?” As in, why am I ever going to need to know this information? For example, why is it important for me to know that the Strait of Gibraltar exists? It existed before I knew it was there, and it will continue to exist long after I’m gone. Thanks to high school, I know that the Strait of Gibraltar exists, but I know absolutely nothing about taxes. You definitely learn a lot of things that you’ll never use again in high school. However, you also learn a lot of things in high school that you didn’t even realize you were learning at the time. Here are 5 things you never realized you were learning in high school. 

1. Some adults are terrible at their jobs.

In high school you probably had some teachers that weren’t so great at teaching. At the time you thought it was just a weird quirk, or they were really cool for throwing a fiesta every Friday for four months straight. In reality, it was just an excuse for them to not put any effort into a lesson plan and to eat chips and salsa all day. I can’t blame them honestly. That’s a pretty sweet gig. However, once you hit the working world you will soon realize just how many adults are terrible at their jobs. This especially rings true with office jobs. A simple email asking someone if they’d like chicken or fish at the team event will be met with a useless reply of, “Yes.”  

2. You’re going to have to find a way to tolerate all types of people.

Unfortunately, you will have to find a way to deal with unpleasant people in your life. When you were in high school, you may have been picked on by a bully thought, Well, once I graduate I won’t have to deal with people like that anymore. The truth is that the kids who bullied you in high school often just turn into adult douchebags. You also didn’t realize it in high school, but your teachers just get replaced by your managers, and your peers become your coworkers. It’s a vicious cycle.

3. Weekends will continue to kick ass. 

This one’s pretty simple. That sweet release you felt in high school on Fridays when the bell would ring is now replaced with that feeling you get when you punch out on Fridays at work. The only difference is that now you can spend your weekends getting drunk at a bar instead of getting drunk in your friend’s parents’ basement.   

4. There is such a thing as a dumb question.

There’s a saying that a lot of teachers used that went, “There’s no such thing as a dumb question.” Turns out there are many dumb questions in life. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that the majority of questions asked in a public setting are dumb. If you need proof, just look at every question a NFL field reporter has ever asked. I should have picked up on this lesson in high school when one of my classmates posed a question to a health care speaker who had just finished a 45 minute presentation about the dangers of STDs and unprotected sex. His question was, “What would happen if you sewed a dead raccoon inside your chest?” Her response was simply, “Well you’d obviously die of a massive infection.” That was the only follow up question she received after her presentation. Now, my classmate was obviously messing with the speaker that took time out of her schedule to come and talk to us, but the corporate world is lousy with people asking dumb questions… and others giving dumb answers for that matter.

5. Riding the bus becomes more and more depressing the older you get.

Riding the bus as a kid in elementary school was exciting and allowed you to learn new swear words from the older kids on the back of the bus. In high school you may have realized that riding the bus wasn’t fun anymore, but you probably didn’t realize that riding the bus continues to become more and more depressing the older you get. After you get out of high school, sack lunches wrapped in brown paper bags are replaced with liquor bottles, and the smell of a child’s future is replaced with that of somebody’s urine.