You Haven't Been Educated Yet

If you think "Entitlement Mentality" pertains more to the uneducated
poor than to the educated elite, you haven't been educated yet.

If you've never been responsible for earning your own living, you
haven't begun to be educated yet.

If you've never loved, lost, and learned to love again, you haven't
been educated yet.

If you can't understand the difference between the true beauty of
religion and the ugliness of religious bigotry and persecution, you're
not educated yet.

If you think intelligence is all you're going to need, you've
wasted your education so far.

If you haven't had to persist when everything's gone bad, your
friends are gone, and you're tired, discouraged, and see no hope,
you haven't been educated yet.

If you've never learned important lessons from those whom you
never would have expected to have such insight, you haven't
found the best source of education yet.

If you haven't learned when to be compassionate and when to
be "tough as sandpaper", you haven't been educated yet.

If you haven't held your child's hand, looked into their eyes,
and felt that bond of love, you haven't been educated yet.

If you believe that politicians don't promise more than they
can pay for or deliver, you haven't come close to being
educated yet.

If you haven't found that very educated people can be "dumb
as a stump" regarding human nature and how things really work,
you haven't been educated yet.

If you haven't learned that you need both luck and preparation
to succeed at the highest level, you haven't been educated yet.

And finally, if you haven't learned that living your life with
truth, integrity, honesty, and honor is the only way to lead to
true self-esteem and happiness, you've defeated the purpose
of getting an education in the first place.

A degree is not an end unto itself.  It's only a tool.  Merely
a temporary measuring post on the road to discovery.

A true education is not something that is bestowed on one when
receiving their degree...it is something that is earned by embracing,
relishing, and overcoming the challenges of life, as it is lived.

Real education is the result of a life, well lived.