Product Description

You've waited for this moment your entire life. Being able to come and go as you please, to eat what you want when you want, to listen to your music as loud as you d like, and the option of going to Wal-Mart at 3am just because you can. Your mind is filled with excitement, enthusiasm, and anticipation as you grow up and prepare to enter the real world of life. But then it hits you like a ton of bricks:

A Reality Check.

The days of choosing between white milk and chocolate milk are replaced by decisions on paying bills, making career decisions, attending college classes, and preparing your taxes. Recess and nap time are distant memories that have now been exchanged for frustrations with your boss, relationship challenges, and the need for health insurance. Pretty exciting, huh?

In this humorous and relevant book, Reality Check, author Grant Baldwin helps you navigate both the challenges and opportunities of the real world in a practical and applicable manner. He addresses the real and honest questions that students are asking on issues such as creating a budget, applying for scholarships, dealing with relationships, and finding a career that you re passionate about. This is your guide to the Real World.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163804 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-17
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Grant Baldwin is a relevant leader and an engaging communicator who is making a significant impact in the lives of students across the country. He is a successful entrepreneur, having started and run many different businesses. Today, he travels the country speaking to thousands of students in conferences, workshops, camps, and retreats. He loves inspiring people to pursue their passions and dreams in life. He lives in Springfield, Missouri with his wife Sheila and two daughters, Sydnee and Emilee.

Customer Reviews

The Life Skills Needed For College and Beyond
Grant Baldwin has produced a books that is accessible to the audience he tries to influence - that teenager preparing for college (as well as a host of other things). Unfortunately, most of today's young adults do not read very much and authors can have a tendency to write above their heads. Baldwin writes at the average senior in High School - freshmen in college level (actually, one could argue he has written at a 9-10th grade level).

He provides some websites on scholarships; but, his best advice here is that one should not "overlook" the smaller scholarships that maybe provide only $200 or $500. Often, parents and their children are looking for the large scholarship; however, college is often paid for with multiple smaller monies.

His sections on friends, family and relationships, while brief, is helpful. Topics such as breaking up, sex, and even when/if one should move back with mom and dad are discussed. None of these chapters are preachy, because with this thin skinned generation, this is probably a good tactic. Instead, he briefly, yet pointedly, discusses why one should wait until marriage to engage in sex. He does not take just a minimal approach (avoided STDs, etc), but seeks to show the benefits of waiting (he uses him and his wife as an example, and in not a superior way either).

All in all, a nice quick resource that the average student can read (and it is organized as such that it doe snot need to be read from front to back, but as a question arises). Purchase this for your High School student so they can prepare for college and the book briefly seeks to provide tips for the "future" beyond college and the real world.

Ten star WOW Recommend it big time!
The chapter titled FINANCES: Show Me The Money is one of the best chapters I have ever read from the dozens of books on financial issues, that I have ever read. In fact its a chapter pre-teens and even those well over age 21 should read, if they want a wake up call on the realities of life and a reminder that other adults be they parents or friends, wont always be there to bail a person out.

Also liked the chapter titled The Future: Swimming in the Deep End, because it helps the reader find who they really are and what their life purpose is. And it also helps calm the fears of the unknown.

Friends, Family & Relationships is so well written and not preachy or scary when discussing issues of sex. In fact I think this is a chapter any one of sexual activity age should read, because it speaks to various issues many people never give much thought to, until after the fact.

Practical Advice That Young People Can Relate To
Reality Check is a wonderful resource for opening up a dialogue with your young adult! Wide-Ranging and Well-Written, it details some terrific advice on everything from relationships to finance for young people making the transition to adulthood. I especially appreciated the fact that the information provided was concise enough to keep a teenager from getting bored, but detailed enough to be useful. I'm giving the book to my 16 year old son. There really aren't enough resources like this that offer effective viewpoints and techniques to negotiate the hazards that young people will face as they move from high school to college and, ultimately, to their adult lives. I thought the sections on making the decision to go to college, financial aid and the hidden traps of debt were particularly good. The author uses just enough humor to make his point, without being flippant or trite. This book easily deserves a 5 Star Rating!