Four years back I was at a stage in my life where I felt confused, hopeless and directionless. Everyone around me had their lives perfectly planned out and I had no idea what I wanted to do and just wished everyday that time would stop and I’d at be where I was always. It was indeed, the scariest time of my life. You may have guessed it by now, it was the time I was graduating from High School.

Four years later, I am now going to be graduating from university. However, this time I feel different about graduation. I feel excited, motivated, independent and prepared to do anything I come across from here on. Now before you feel anxious and start thinking that “Oh tHiS guY hAs HiS Life ALL fiGuRed oUt aNd I nEEd To stArT dOinG somEthinG abOut mY liFe” and start going down that negative mental spiral. Let me put your mind to ease… I have nothing figured out and I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do.

But thats not the point of this blog. I just want to share things I’ve learnt in these past four years with you all that have made me feel this way. Since I have been speaking to my friends who are graduating soon as well and they are all just panicking, reminding me of how I felt when I was finishing up school. Hopefully this blog will help you to trust yourself and be less stressed about what may or may not happen.

Firstly, trust your training.

Before we go on further, just remind yourself how much you have paid for your degree. A lot of money right? Now remind yourself how much effort you have put in to attain that degree. Remind yourself of all the sleepless nights at the library, the mental breakdowns and all the courage you showed to get through them all.

Now think about this. Did you pay so much and go through all that stress just to feel less confident about yourself? You were trained by some brilliant individuals in your field. So trust that training that you have received. Many students like us undermine ourselves. We feel afraid to apply for jobs and start that dream business because we feel we are not qualified. DON’T DO THAT TO YOURSELF!

I undermined myself a lot when I was in school and even after I graduated. The moment I started to believe that I am trained to do whatever I need to, everything started to change for me.

Imagine if Ronaldo (the football player) practiced everyday for years, became the best but only played in his local city league. Only because he felt he may not be good enough for an international league. What a waste of talent right? You may do that to yourself If you don’t trust your training. So just take a second trust your training and do your best, don’t ever undermine yourself.

Don’t compare yourself

Everyone has different paths to take, so please don’t compare yourself to anyone other than yourself. The people who seemed to had it all figured out when I was in school turned out to drop out from their courses and do somethings completely different, which is absolutely fine. But I just made myself go through so much stress just because I was comparing myself to them.

Just know it all works for the best.

Now the times we are graduating in are uncertain. Some of us may not be able to find the jobs we wished for and things may not be looking like how you imagined them to be. Just know this is not the end of your life!!!!

What are we 22? 21? 24? We have our entire lives ahead of us, just because it doesn’t work out now doesn’t mean it will never work out! Have some faith! You paid god knows how many thousands for your degree, might as well have some faith that it will get you somewhere now.

If things are working out in your favour, congrats! Embrace it! But just in case it is not, have you ever thought that it just maybe for the better? Who knows what big gift life is still preparing for you. COVID may have taken away a lot of opportunities but you can’t disagree that it has also created a lot more opportunities. You choose which side you want to look at. (Just an example, my friend started TikTok after his summer internship got cancelled and I don’t think he feels bad about his internship getting cancelled after all).

Watch this video linked below. It’s helped me get more confident and I’m sure it will do the same for you.

Before I end this blog I want to leave you to a song to listen to whenever you feel anxious and stressed about not knowing what to do. I hope this blog has helped a little at least if not much. All the best and Congratulations to all of you graduating in the coming months, I’m sure we will all do great! 🙂