Help for the Teenage Slacker

I am a college student. I can admit to myself that I am not the best one. But I also tend to underestimate my knowledge at times but I digress. The point is that I am not the best student in the world. I like to say that I lack the drive due to the educational system not challenging me enough when I was younger. And even that may be true. But as it stands right now, right in this moment in time. I'm just a slacker. Nothing more and nothing less. But not all slackers are blobs of purposlessness and "guhhh" as I would put it. I think that (and this may be the worst pun ever) same way there is a route to being a slacker, there is a root behind it.

So first... A little background information about me. My name is Dominique. I'm a 19 yr old Black American male with, literally, the potential to do anything that I put my mind to. I also have a very vibrant, but not outlandishly, "you need some medication", imagination. The thing that contributes to my slackerness is my lack of direction. Just a little earlier I mentioned my potential. Well being that I'm lazy, I never fully applied myself to anything that I tried or rather never really stuck to it so I'm kind of equal at everything except cooking, football, basketball, track, swimming (I guess), and most definitely, video games. But even if I was an over-achiever, I would still have the paradox of trying to pick a career out of all the things that I am capable and pretty good at doing.

So step 1 for the slacker - realize what the hell you want to do with your life because that will definitely make things easier on you. You might want to know how to do this. Well.. the best thing is to go about this two ways - you figure out what you're good at and you figure out what you like to do. Now you have three options left. You can either find a career in what you're good at, like to do, or hopefully you can find one that encompasses both.

Now here's the real hard part. Actually DOING it. This.... is the part that is hardest for me. See us slackers and geniuses in slacker-form aren't like those nerds and ubercon 4000 people. We haven't always known what we've wanted to do with our lives since the age of 3. If you have, then, you are just beyond a slacker. You are something more. And this blog just really can't help you. But back to the slackers - we haven't always known what we've wanted to do. So we haven't always had that "this has to be done otherwise I wont graduate from school, and I won't get into a good college so that I can become [insert job]". Therefore asserting ourselves is quite the task. If it wasn't, again, we wouldn't be slackers. So here's step 2 - TRY TO APPLY YOURSELF.

Hey, I know that if this was the 12-step program, that even if we were on step 4, it would be like jumping to step 10. Oh boy, I know. But I'm not just going to cast you out there like your Mario Lopez shirtless, at the Gay parade, no. I'm going to help you out. After all the title of this is "Help for the Teenage Slacker." So here's what you do. If school (college especially) has you down, depressed, stressed, and pressed, make it seem as if it's not work! How? Guy, just get involved in the school. Now here's the thing. Some people can't give up their jobs and such to do that. But.. if you're working to help pay for school, look at it as wasting your own money and the longer your stay in that perpetual hell, the more it will continue to take it. Second, you gotta prioritize. Realize that school is way more important than the stupid $7 - $15/hr job you have. When you graduate, you'll make 4 to 5 times MORE than that. So again, get involved in school. Combine something that you're good at and/or like and find a club in your school to join. If you're a social butterfly like me, realize that those types of organizations can produce a different kind of social life. Join something that you like, that requires a minimum GPA to stay on/in it, that way you know that you have to do what you have to do.

Step 3 - IF IT FEELS A LITTLE WEIRD OR AWKWARD, IT'S PROBABLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO
So this means, if you're with a group of people and you're talking or hanging out or whatever and then you realize "shoot! I have a paper to do. But these guys are goin' to a party!!.." Chances are you should go to do the paper. Parties will be there all the time. Same music, same dances, same hot women, same ugly ones. Just realize what you have to do.

So in short, YOU ARE A SLACKER. YOUR INSTINCTS ARE THAT OF A SLACKER. SO CHANCES ARE, 8 OR 9 (pending on the person) OUT OF 10 TIMES, YOUR THOUGHTS ARE SLACKER ORIENTATED. THEREFORE JUST DO THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU'RE THINKING!

I know it hurts. I really do. But I will be taking my own advice as of Monday. So you should try too. Note that this only pertains to work and school and anything important. Other than than, be the biggest slacker you want to be.

In synopsis, you need to know what you want to do with your life. This will give you the light at the end of a dark, evil, work filled tunnel. You need to figure out what you like to do and what you're good at and then encompass that in your work and school. If you want to lose weight, join a sport that you like and then you have to keep your grades up to stay on the team so that you can lose weight. Lastly, recognize that you are a slacker and know that the slacker thought is in your mind. So when it comes to work and school and the course of action you should take, don't trust yourself. You're probably just thinking about a way to not do your work.

ENJOY YOUR BRIGHT FUTURE