[ThaHero]

Honestly, your brother sounds just like me a few years ago. I basically said a lot of the same things. I didn't realize how important school was until recently. I was out of school for 3 years thinking I could make it in life without it, but when I saw jobs I wanted to apply for that made decent money they all required a degree or 4+ years experience. This started to open my eyes.

Then all my little cousins(whom I love dearly) graduated high school and started going off to college. I started telling them how imporant it was blah blah blah but started to feel hypocritical.

Later I got a job temping for a contracts and grants dept for the county. I liked reading the contracts and legal documents and said "F this, I'm going back to school." Law really interests me now, but I screwed up so bad in school I doubt I can even get into a decent law school.

School is so important for many reasons. The most important I think is that it keeps options open. A lof of times you'll be stuck doing something you hate, and can't attain something you might like because you didn't finish.

I also threatened to join the military, but ultimately I didn't really want to go. In retrospect I was really confused and had no goals or direction. I guess the point I'm saying is; and you being through it yourself; unless he gets goals of his own or has a light bulb go off that tells him to take school seriously, nothing will happen. You could talk until you're blue in the face and he may even give some half-hearted efforts, but in the end it will come down to him actually wanting to be there.

I know it's tough sitting by watching. I could only imagine how I would feel if one of my cousins took the same train of thought I had back then. I realoize now how my parents felt. But saying "Take it from me" doesn't carry all that much weight to him probably at this juncture.

I have no idea if this was helpful or not but hopefully it was.