What Society Tells Me
                                 After Jamaica Kincaid

Do not be late for the 1st day of school; work hard from the beginning till the end; finish those college applications on time or even better, ahead of time; do not wait until the last minute and be one of those procrastinators who claims they produce their best work under pressure; your personal essay is very important; be elegant, likable, nostalgic, interesting, and caring all through your words; be who you are in your essay as long as who you are is good enough and what they want to hear; what if they don’t want to hear what I have to say?;mid-October will be a drag but do not get weary and lazy with your school work; keep pushing; enjoy winter break; everyone celebrates Christmas, tis’ the season; What if I’m not a Christian?; New Years is a celebration and we all watch the glass ball drop in Times Square; oh and don’t forget to make New Years Resolutions, but if you don’t follow through with them don’t worry, no one does; by now it’s senior spring and you think all your issues are gone; wrong, your life is really about to begin; make the right choices; you have to get good grades this semester so you can say you graduated with honors; do not fail because if you fail now you won’t get into a good college; if you don’t get into a good college you won’t be anything in life; why is college the only way to be successful?; Make sure you get into a good school, where you have great opportunities; don’t party too hard; don’t do drugs or alcohol because you can die and be the failure, I’m afraid your going to be; focus, focus, focus; balance, balance, balance; process, process, process; repeat; do what I tell you and you will succeed; you need to find a job and make some money because one day no one will support you; just make ends met; don’t be that optimist that thinks they are going to be a millionaire because you won’t; ordinary people can only make bare minimum; ordinary people are survivors; why can’t we not only survive but live?; have you not listened to anything I have told you!?; people who live life fail because they don’t focus on what’s really important; trust me, you do not want to get diverged from your goals because then you will never achieve them; once you finish college, begin to look for a husband; men don’t like sluts who are willing to be with anything and everyone; be classy, poised, a lady; eat properly, not barbarically; do as you’re told and he will call you a keeper; don’t worry about being in love because it never works out as planned; haven’t you seen the movies?; love causes trouble and heartaches; don’t love; just avoid it; your kids are your life now; do all that you can for them and when you get old they will take care of you; grow old and realize that your whole life you never did anything for yourself; please everyone else and do what society tells you; never break out of the rhythm of your life; be like a robot doing the same thing over and over; never explore or take adventures; only know the world within the four walls of your home; never live life, only survive.