*Note: This was originally published in 2020 on my former website.
The 5 lessons learned one year after graduating from university.
It’s the end of June 2020, and this month marks the first year since I’ve graduated from university. While I still have days where I yearn for the easy days of being a student and not having too many pressures in life, I don’t miss it all that much. I’ve learned a lot the past year, and I’d love to share them with you.
1. Don’t compare your life to what people are posting on social media about theirs
Social media is a great tool for staying in touch with friends and family. But social media also has a HUGE downside—drawing comparisons between our lives to other people’s lives.
It’s widely known that everything posted on social media is a highlight reel of our lives. It’s easy as we scroll down our social media feeds to get into thinking that how someone is portraying their life on social media is doing better at us at life. We grads are especially more susceptible to this comparison because a lot of things are expected from us by society at this stage in our lives, but we have to remember that we’re on our own unique journeys.
2. Make time for what’s important in your life like family and friends, it can’t all just be about work
Although I don’t have a full-time career in my field yet, I already understand from six years of working multiple part-time jobs during university that focusing on work and working a lot shouldn’t be where my time is always focused on.
3. You’re still young, you don’t have to have it all figured out right now
I’m 24, but when I turned 24 in February, I thought I was getting old. Yes, I had a mini quarter-life crisis, but as Sorelle Amore said in her video about ageing, “You’re one of the lucky ones that gets the opportunity to live longer, that in itself is so amazing.”
I understand that being in my 20s, I’ll be more susceptible to feeling and needing to have my whole life figured out already, but like Sorelle says in her video, I still have my whole life to live—the last thing I want to do during this phase in my life is to rush a decision that could impact the next few years of my life.
4. Student loans are a pain but teach you a lot of things
For the longest time, I was ashamed to have acquired student loans, but since graduating, I have become grateful for them as I’ve become more financially literate than ever before.
I started paying my student loans about six months ago, and luckily have been able to pay more than the minimum contribution for each loan. I plan to pay off these loans within 2-3 years because I don’t want to be paying them off any longer.
5. Remember to be grateful for each day
Every day that I wake up is truly a blessing (as cheesy as that sounds) because it’s true. I don’t know until what age I’ll live up to, so I actively try to remind myself to be grateful for each day I wake up, even if the day was a bad one.
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These are just some of the many lessons I’ve learned since I’ve graduated from university. I know I’ll have more lessons to share in my second year, and I’m excited to see what they teach me.
Trish types away 