Cool Kids. Successful Adults or NOT--

Heard a speaker the other day expounding on his opinion of cool kids and suffice to say that he found them shallow and had nothing much positive to talk about. Went so far as to say that at school reunions they were among the least successful.

My immediate reaction was "You've got to be kidding!"

And then I really started thinking about it. I doubt that times have really changed all that much and in my opinion through the years the cool kids were really the leaders and that for the most part that is not an easy job.

How do you get to be a leader? Mostly by setting an example and when I think of kids through the years the leaders were those who studied hard, got good grades, were active in extra curricular activities and encouraged others to participate as well.

How do kids develop in high school? By paying attention in class and learning and by participating in activities which will help them develop their God-given skills such as Chess club, computer club, forensics and debate, band, choir, class officers, drama, yearbooks and school newspapers, Future Farmers, Junior Achievement plus sports of all kinds for both boys and girls. Many, if not most schools now have programs which foster community service activities even to the point of making them a requirement.

When we attend school reunions and see that jocks may have become a little flabby and the cheerleaders show a little gray in their hair we cannot make the assumption that they are not successful individuals. Everyone "grows up" in different ways and it is a real kick to talk to pretty much everyone in the room checking up on what they're up to and realizing that most of them are content with themselves and their families.

When we look around at the community leadership, the leadership in philanthropic action, educational staffing, military heroes and all the rest I think we are looking at mature cool kids. When we look at our own kids and can be proud of them, as I'm sure most of us are, we know the next generations of cool kids are in pretty good hands. Cool kids felt their responsibility at an early age and we should be grateful to them and to their parents.

God bless.........