FISCHER – Three tips for new graduates

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

This weekend saw the release of a fresh batch of newly graduated high schoolers.

To all of you new graduates out there ready to plunge into the world of adulthood… sorry.

This is what you’ve got to work with. Good luck.

It’d be nice if I could tell you that you’re entering a world run by competent adults who have everything under control while you adjust to your new place in society. The truth is though that we’re all just winging it, trying to keep the ship steady in the face of what seems to be an unending series of problems that should have been resolved back when my generation graduated high school.

Welcome to the real world.

So here’s some advice from somebody who, even though I have shirts older than you, still remembers what it’s like to get thrown into the deep end of adulthood.

We’ll kick things off with…

Impostor syndrome

Paraphrasing one the great philosophers of our time, the years start coming and they don’t stop coming. You’ll read through the rules and hit the ground running.

But no matter how much you’ve prepared for whatever career path you decide to take, you will inevitably reach a point where you’re going to walk into a room and feel like you’ve snuck in somewhere you don’t belong.

This feeling may persist for many, many years and the only way through it is experience. I’m not saying to fake it until you make it, but also I kinda am.

The longer you keep at it, you’ll eventually come to two realizations.

The first is that you actually do know what you’re doing, even though you might be the last person to be convinced of it.

The second is that most of the people around you have been faking it to some extent too.

Here’s a secret, kids. Most adult interactions are just two people bluffing about how confident they are about whatever it is they’re doing.

Especially because…

Grown-ups are dumb

For your entire life you’ve been told to trust in the wisdom of your elders and while there is merit in seeking out advice from those more experienced, you will quickly realize that knowledge doesn’t always accumulate with age.

The world is full of people who have somehow managed to make it through life with a lack of awareness that will shock you. People with such staggering ignorance that you’ll wonder how it’s possible that they’ve made it in the world.

These people are not only out there, some of them even make it into Congress.

The good news is that if they can make it, you surely can, too. Especially if you keep on learning.

I suspect many of these people got high school diplomas of their own decades ago and decided they’d already learned everything they needed to know about the world.

Don’t make that mistake.

Keep learning

Ha! You thought you were done with your education?

No no no. You just completed the tutorial.

Hopefully, at some point during the process of memorizing those geometry terms you’ll never use and historical dates you’ll never remember, you’ve learned how to learn. You’ve learned how to find information, separate fact from fiction, and apply that knowledge into your everyday life.

From kindergarten to now you’ve been developing that skill.

Use it. Not just those of you who are college-bound. All of you.

Always be learning something, because if you stop using that skill it will atrophy like an unused muscle and the day you stop learning is the day the world leaves you behind.

– Travis Fischer is a news writer for the Charles City Press and actually did have a mini-crisis upon realizing that the shirt he wore to cover Senior Night was older than the students receiving scholarships.