Good morning all. I have not written a blogpost in a long time. So I am excited about writing again. Also, I just want to mention upfront that I am not making a political statement, but I just feel that there are a lot of lessons learned.  As a parent of two teenage kids, I worry about how they behave outside the home.

If you live in the US, it is hard not to be aware of what is going on with the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for the US Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court Justice is a person  nominated by the President of the US. The US Senate has hearings to confirm this nominee and if confirmed, the appointment is for LIFE. Talk about job security. Anyway, as Mr. Kavanaugh’s hearings were going on, a lady, Christine Blasey Ford, accused him of assaulting her at a party when they were both in high school, almost 35 years ago. She claimed that he was very drunk. After her accusation, two more women came forth and accused Mr. Kavanaugh. The FBI is currently investigating him. I want to be absolutely clear here: I AM NOT TAKING ANY SIDES. I will let the system decide what happens. So here is my advice for young people:

1. When you are in high school, you are under 21 which is the legal drinking age in the US and many other countries. If you are underage, DON’T DRINK.
2. If you go to a party, make sure you know who is going. When there is a party, word gets around and a friend of a friend of a friend also comes to the party. My point is, you may not always know who is coming. So be careful.
3. Always stay in a group. If you go to a party with your friend, tell them to watch your back and you do the same. Don’t put yourself in a situation where your safety is compromised.
4. If you do find yourself in a compromising situation, do WHATEVER you can to protect yourself. Whether it is screaming, kicking, spitting, injuring your assailant, do it.
5. In spite of your best efforts, if you do get assaulted, the first thing you should do is tell your parents or another responsible adult and launch a formal police complaint. You will probably anger your parents when you tell them what happened, but don’t be afraid. Parents will always protect their kids NO MATTER WHAT. It is important to do it as soon after the incident as possible.
6. In general, think before you act. You never know what you will become and who might want to come forth with past information about you at the most inopportune time.
7. With cellphones and other recording devices, you are constantly being recorded. You cannot control where this recording will end up. I have read that prospective employers check your social media profile. Many sites like Amazon, Google, Facebook collect data on you that you can’t even imagine. As you know, this data is far from secure. Just recently hackers stole data from 50 million Facebook accounts. You could potentially lose or not get a job because of what you did in the past.

I hope you like this post. As usual, I would like to welcome any comments you have and also please share with your contacts.