If you were to stick me on a pulpit in front of a multitude of kids in high school and let me speak to them for a couple of minutes, here's roughly what I would say:

I'd like to talk about the one aspect of adulthood that affects just about everyone: employment. As much as you might dislike a lot of the work you're doing in your classes now, you're all smart enough to know that growing into adulthood doesn't offer a magical cure for this.

A handful of you, for one reason or another, will never have to work. You'll be financially independent and thus exempt from this privilege. Choose to work anyway. Cultivate a skill, and use it to help others do what they are unable to do for themselves.

Some of you will be fortunate enough to find paths that will afford you mobility. You'll be able to be selective about which jobs you accept and which ones you turn down. Invest the time early on in your life to distinguish which types of jobs you find meaningful from those you don't, and gravitate towards those in which you find meaning.

And to those of you who end up finding yourselves in jobs that you wouldn't choose or that you actively dislike: find meaning in the work anyway. Whatever it takes, whatever you have to do, find meaning in your efforts. If, for any reason, you can't do this, find another job. However insignificant your job might be, however pointless it might feel to you at times, never stop seeking to understand that what you are doing matters.