Smart Person, Not-So-Smart Decisions

     I watched as he walked down the street until he saw a car. He then proceeded to steal it, run over a bunch of people, and become involved in a high speed police chase. After a little while, he gave up and pulled over, but then proceeded to take out his gun and fight the police until they eventually put him down. And then he stopped playing Grand Theft Auto.
     But why was he playing GTA on a school night in the first place? It was because he had, once again, forgotten he had homework. He had a planner, but that didn't do any good because he couldn't find anything in his disorganized backpack anyway. So once again, I found him doing nothing, while his grades were slowly declining. I didn't understand it. He is actually smart, with an IQ in the 120's, but how was he still struggling to get a 2.5 GPA? All his parents and teachers believed in him, or else they wouldn't have recommended he sign up for his first advanced class. But still, why were his grades so bad? I realized, it had nothing to do with attention span, or anything like that. It was his priorities that were screwed up. He began in middle school not really caring, and of course, all those bad habits came with him into High School. As a result, as everyone is looking for which Universities to go to, he is stuck looking at Community Colleges.
     Seeing that he was depressed, I decided to have a talk with him. I told him that "Yes. You did screw up. But you can still change. Of course, not many places will be interested in you now, but if you can actually raise your grades and show you are willing to try, maybe some places you had never expected will have to look a second time at you. They will see that you have improved. Just remember that just because it's senior year, it doesn't mean theres nothing left for you. You should never give up because you never know what will be waiting for you if you just man up, take some responsibility for your short comings, and most importantly, change."