It’s graduation season and for no other reason than free advice is always worth the price, I offer 10 points to ponder for those that think their education is now complete.
No. 1: Author Ed Yong wrote “all we know isn’t necessarily all there is, nor all there is to know.” In other words, you may have graduated and feel filled with knowledge, but you’re entering a changing world that will insist on your participation. Do your best to keep up; today and forever.
No.2: Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech 360 times before he delivered it on the National Mall in 1963. You’re going to meet people that make what they do look easy. Chances are it’s because they’ve paid their dues making it look that way.
No. 3: Happiness comes whenever expectations are exceeded. If you want to make someone happy, deliver more than they expected. If you want to be happier, set your bar a little lower.
No. 4: Establish a good group. Have a trustable “go to” person for money matters, mechanical matters, cooking matters, and such. Be choosy who you take advice from but choose to take good advice when it’s offered. Tough times are never too tough if you go through it with the right person.
No. 5: Sometimes you must spend time in the weeds to appreciate the flowers. Experience is a great teacher so learn from your mistakes. And don’t wait to catch a cold before you appreciate how well you feel today.
No. 6: You cannot replace the idea of “good and bad” with “better or worse.” Bad is bad and it is unacceptable to accept something just because it’s the lesser of two evils.
No. 7: You spend a third of your life in bed. Find the best bed you can afford. See also; tires and shoes. Protect and invest in the things that come between you and the ground.
No. 8: If you’re still thinking about the price, then what you bought wasn’t worth it. The exception of course is getting a great deal on something, but in general if you come home from vacation worrying about what you just spent, then it might have been a bad idea.
No. 9: If we all liked the same thing, everybody would be after my wife. Maybe they are and I’ve just not been paying attention, but the point is love the things you love. Friends and family have their loves and that’s fine; let them. But as they say, “you do you”.
No. 10: The mind can be like a boomerang, but if you throw it too far, it might not come back to where it began. Rabbit holes exist and so does misinformation. “I did my own research” often leads to simply homing in on sources that agree with and verify the thinking that we already had in place. Be careful to access sources that are trustworthy and verifiable themselves.
So, Class of 2024, there’s 10 things to chew on. Some are pieces of advice given to me, some are things from books I’ve read, and some are things I’ve worked up myself through experience. Read them, roll them over in your head, post them on a fridge, it doesn’t matter to me. What does matter is that you get on with your life. To that, I wish you all the best. If you work hard, play hard, love well and treat the world with kindness I think you will find that those 10 points will all find their places into the mix.