Most things we do every day, we do without acknowledgment of actually doing them. We cook, we clean, we drive places, all while going through the motions. We rarely stop to think about how we even learned to do these easy tasks. It seems like college students or kids leaving home for the first time are embarrassed to stop and ask how to do things because there is an overarching norm that “we should just know how.” Why couldn’t we all take a life lessons class in high school so that we didn’t have to feel so ridiculous calling home to ask our moms how you deposit a check or texting our dads when our cars won’t start?
1. How to balance a checkbook
Maybe we need to learn how to write a check too?
2. How to cook/grill
Apparently making cereal doesn't count as cooking, so here we are wondering how to tell if our chicken is cooked or how to set up a propane tank to the grill.
3. How to change a tire
Boys may know this more than girls, but it is a skill that could save your life if you're stranded in the wrong place with a blown out tire.
4. How to iron
The febrile de-wrinkle spray doesn't always do the job.
5. How to jump start a car
Most of us have jumper cables but wouldn't know how to actually implement their full use.
6. How to change a light bulb (cliché but an actual thing that should be learned)
How many people does it really take to screw in a light bulb?
7. How to connect your cable to your TV
Now that there is wifi in TVs, smart TVs, and Netflix, cable is sure to go out of style soon, but as for now, how exactly does that whole thing work?
8. What are taxes? Please explain..
Seriously, how do I taxes and when do I have to have that figured out by?
9. Where do I go to vote and how?
You're finally 18 and want go vote, but no one explains how exactly the process works.
10. How to sew (even just a button)
Simply using a thread and needle is unheard of during this day and age, but it is definitely a life skill needed.
11. How do we use insurance? What happens when we aren't under our parents anymore?
Medical insurance, dental insurance, car insurance, and I think I need life insurance, too.
12. How do I invest
We hear investment is a good way to make money with the money you have. Can we have some elaboration on that?
13. Basic "handy-man" maintenance skills
How exactly does one unclog a sink or a toilet, how do I clean tile floors and what cleaning supplies can I use on what?
While the “grown-ups” of the world may laugh at these little things that seem like common knowledge, remember you had to stop and learn how to do each of these things too. Some of these things aren’t common knowledge, and many young adults feel uneducated for asking how to do something. But in reality, does anyone really just learn to change a tire on their own and file their taxes altogether? So to all the grown ups out there — we're really sorry we don't know how to do these things — if only there was a class in high school that could teach them all.
