Autoshop students learn how to install radiators during class. Practical skills like this could eventually prove helpful in the future.

Know how to cook meals? Clean? Pay taxes? Analyze the stock market numbers as they flash before you on the news?

If you’re like most students, you probably don’t.

Pampered by the lives of today, many students lack the life skills needed to survive in the real world such as cooking, cleaning, money management, interviewing techniques and more. The school should offer opportunities to encourage students to become more independent in order to prepare them for life beyond high school. But ultimately, students must take it upon themselves to be well-equipped for the challenges ahead.

“I don’t think we know enough to live on our own,” sophomore Sheilah Smith said. “We’re going to need [life skills] later on in life when we’re on our own and we don’t have parents.”

Few members of the student body frequently execute simple domestic skills such as doing laundry or paying bills. Most often wait for their parents to clean and go out to eat most of their meals.

“I am dependent on my parents for a lot of things so I would say that I could learn more life skills,” junior Lynn Marks said.

At lunch, the campus is left mainly with the freshmen and sophomores who do not have cars in which to go out to eat. However, this means that students are ill-equipped to take care of themselves and live independently.

Within a few years, students will be off to college or work on their own, and knowing how to feed themselves healthily or balancing money to spend, save or invest will be indispensable.

Students should do more to ensure that they are capable of performing chores and tasks that are required of any adult. More students should get jobs; after all, working to make a living is what the real world is about. They should also consider taking electives like Autoshop, which will help students understand how to fix their vehicles or consider spending time volunteering for community organizations that could open their eyes to other parts of the world that many haven’t seen.

Being prepared for the years to come is vital for anyone who wants to succeed in the future.