One of the biggest things that I have learned is that I don’t know much about life. The word sophomore literally means wise fool. I am a wise fool at Biola University in southern California. I have learned a few things in my life and most of these major learning experiences happened after high school.

Life is pretty ironic. Generally, high school students think that they know a great deal about life. ?Obviously’ they know more than their parents, because things are so different these days.

As a senior in high school, this whole mentality simply gets magnified. Many students think that their ?outdated’ parents easily agitate them. Often students then think that no one really understands them except for their friends on certain issues.

Finally, most students will gain a piece of paper that assumes they know a few things and, hopefully, gain some freedom. Then before they know it, students are off to college where they will be surrounded by people far more mature than the people they have previously been in contact with. These people, students hope, will understand them.

This is what most high school seniors think as they begin to get the ever-common senioritis. The thing that shocks most people is that while college is great and learning is at a higher level, life goes through the same cycles no matter the surroundings.

High school graduates may slowly realize, but not often admit, that their parents were mostly right and have more wisdom than their kids give them credit for. Yet why wouldn’t they? Believe it or not, parents probably thought about and did many of the same things when they were in high school.

I think that I know enough about life to know that I do not know very much. While that statement may sound ridiculous, I think it is a good place to be. My humble advice is to look forward to college, but don’t dismiss the high school experience and others too quickly.

For what it is worth, the same things that annoyed me about high school still annoy me in college because those things are a part of human nature to some degree. The process of attaining wisdom takes time, patience and a commitment to acquiring it. Maybe graduates will need to adjust their thinking and expectations about life after high school as they head to college.