Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten was advice I originally didn’t take seriously until much later. It came at the time when I was just finishing my 8th-grade year at Shadyside Academy, and my parents told me they were going to send me to Central Catholic the following year, instead of continuing high school where I was.

They told me to just, “give Central a shot” and that they knew what was best for me, but I didn’t want to listen. I didn’t know much about Central Catholic at the time, but I did know I wanted nothing to do with an all-boys prep school. The thought of leaving all my friends behind was the last thing I wanted to do, but I knew I didn’t have a choice. 

Coming into my freshman year I had the attitude that I was determined not to like Central. I was really thinking there was no way I would. I thought I knew everything about Central that I needed to know and that the “brotherhood” I’d heard so much about was just a bunch of baloney.

At the time I thought I already knew what was best for me, when in reality I had, and still have, so much to learn. This outlook made my first few months at Central pretty lonely, because I had already closed myself off to a school that I hadn’t even given a shot to yet.

As time went by I began to open up more, realizing my next four years would be miserable if I continued to close myself off like I had done. I started to branch out more, really trying to make real friends. I decided to finally take the advice my parents had given me all those months before and, unsurprisingly, I started to find my place. 

Looking back, I see the value in giving everything a shot, and that cheesy phrase, “don’t judge a book by its cover”, really does have some merit. There is something to be said about how we, especially as high school kids, don’t know nearly as much as we think we do.

Just because we think we know something doesn’t mean we actually do, and we shouldn’t be so quick to judge. Coming into anything with a good attitude, willing to try out whatever it is, can really open your life up to things you don’t know about yet. This advice really resonated with me, and I hope it can with you too.