4 Pieces of Advice for Today’s College Students

I've been visiting my "college town"(read: Philadelphia) since last Wednesday, and as I'm sure any of you who have ever embarked on the nostalgic wandering through the buildings and sidewalks and landmarks that once held an enormous amount of emotional significance will understand, it's been ... weird.

I am ready to go home.

But before I do, here's some advice I've been ruminating on.

As a 25-year-old just established professional, I sense that I'm just beginning to find my professional identity or my myriad of professional identities. I have my entire adult life ahead of me to find new creative projects that bring me joy, endure spectacular failures, and celebrate beautiful successes.

Yet, as an 18 or 19-year-old, I had such a fixed vision of how it would all be, forever.

So here's the professional advice I would give to a college student or young professional today.

1. Make College About Your Present Self, Not Who You Want to Be

I'm not saying to party like there's no tomorrow every night. In fact, college is where you will ideally learn that there are consequences for your actions if you haven't learned that already.

What I'm trying to say is that you should pick your major based on your current interests, not on the professional you think you should be when you graduate college. The same goes for your extracurriculars and what you choose to do with your free time.

Be responsible, but be happy. Don't spend all four years in a state of chronic stress.

You only get to incur an insane amount of debt in order to live in a little bubble with thousands of other semi-adults trying to figure out who they are once, and then it's over. Graduate education is not as fun. Trust me.

Don't treat what you study as a means to an end. Enjoy the journey. Maybe this is naive advice from a recent graduate, but here's my hot take: it's all going to change. What you thought you wanted to do, the job market, the housing market, the world. You are going to change - fast.

Before you are thrown into the hard, cold world of having to become emotionally mature, pay your own bills, and put most of your income toward taxes, a mortgage payment, and your designer dog, enjoy these four precious years on your terms.

2. Know Your Worth

This one comes from a friend who's an adjunct at our university now. She was telling me over dinner how her students are so burned out that they just want to know how to get the job. How can they best fill out the little resume boxes so that they can land that well-paying position and coast?

Look, I get it. But you've got to stop thinking about yourself in terms of another body behind a desk. I can't think like that at all - I sell my services day in and day out. Learning to pitch who you are, not just what you know, is how you'll land yourself in a workplace that supports you and values you instead of eating you up and spitting you out. Think somewhere you can imagine asking for that raise you deserve.

3. Give a Damn

This one also comes from my amazing adjunct friend. Basically the inspiration for this entire edition. She was also telling me about the lack of accountability many of her students had. This is nothing new - coming to college not understanding that not turning in your final project will result in a C at best- but we discussed the impact the pandemic has had on students and their willingness to try.

I'm not saying that's every college student, by any means. But if you're 18, try and care. Just a little bit. Because - oh, I sound like the adults that annoyed me when I was 18- no one is going to make you care when you graduate. No one is coming to save you.

You have to figure it out. If you're lucky, like me, you'll have a great support network of family, friends, a partner, and a therapist. I strongly recommend strong support networks.

Either way, no one is coming to help you figure out what you're going to be when you grow up or to encourage you to care a little bit more about showing up - at work, for those you love, for the world.

So please, for the sake of this world, find it in you to start giving a tiny bit of a shit if you don't already, and if you do, thank you.

4. No One Knows What They're Doing

This is probably my favorite piece of advice on this list. I know that when you're younger, you think the adults have it figured out. I did. I just recently realized that literally, no one knows what they're doing. So here is your permission to not know what you're doing.

I quit multiple jobs because of how much I hated being bored before I started freelance writing full-time, and I am not a quitter. I felt a lot of guilt and shame over quitting at all.

It's okay to stumble your way through multiple attempts at figuring out what you like, what kind of career you're best suited to, and to feel like you will never, ever, ever figure it out.

This is normal.

Something will stick, I promise, and once it does, you will realize that there is no greater teacher than learning on the job and that we're all just figuring out what we're doing as we go along.

So give everyone else some grace, and absolutely give yourself some.

Life is not meant to be some stress-filled journey to a goal. It's meant to be full of joy, of things that fill your cup. If you find yourself wanting to say, how am I supposed to feel secure, much less joyful in the middle of a climate crisis and this kind of economic inflation and multiple wars around the world - you're not alone.

Living a joyful life is more important than ever right now. We never know what tomorrow will bring, and everything changes, too fast. So enjoy this journey while it lasts.

What would you add?

Get in touch and let me know!