Graduation – the day we anticipate for the first twenty-something years of our lives. We faked sicknesses on cold mornings in elementary school so our moms couldn’t send us to school, cried into our textbooks senior year of high school waiting for university acceptances, and complained to our housemates in college relentlessly about upcoming finals.
But what happens at the end of our academic journey? When the routine that has made up most of our life comes to a close and we enter into the next stage of our lives: adulthood. Of course, while we officially entered adulthood sometime during our university careers, after graduation, your life changes drastically, no matter what path you choose to pursue.
Whether you dive straight into a full-time job, take time off to travel, or enter the fun-tastic world of unemployment (I’ve been there), the transition phase will hit you like a brick. It’s been a year since I graduated, and boy has it been a rollercoaster. But would I have thought I’d be where I’m at now, a year ago? Absolutely not – in a good way.
While I was always the first to complain about my 9am lectures, I was fully aware that knowledge and education is a privilege denied to many. Even before graduation, I knew I didn’t want my learning to end along with my schooling. That’s why I decided to make a reading list that included memoirs of people I admire and recommendations from friends and colleagues. I knocked off a lot of books in the past year (mostly fiction, mental escapism is my poison), but the non-fiction reads were the ones that had the most impact in my personal development. Without further ado, here is a list of 5 books that helped me navigate the transition into formal adulthood that I’d like to share:
1. 12 Rules to Life: An Antidote to Chaos, by Jordan B. Peterson
If you’ve watched one of Jordan Peterson’s lectures, you’d know that he tends to ramble. He’ll get carried away with a sub-idea and you’ll find yourself 20 minutes in like…what was his initial point again? However, this read had me thinking long after I put the book down. While I do suggest you take his ideas with a grain of salt (a very tiny one, at that), he does discuss habits that I decided I wanted to take into my adult life, such as always telling the truth, pursuing the meaningful things in life, and always taking care of yourself the way you would care for a loved one.
2. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
This book was actually part of the required reading for onboarding at my company. While the book has been criticized for being ‘too simple’ (it can be read in an hour), I believe it makes a point that needs to be reiterated. This tells the story of 4 mice navigating through a maze, looking for cheese – they find the cheese, and settle there for a while. One day, after they wake up and find the cheese is gone, all 4 mice react differently, and spoiler alert: the mouse who anticipated change, accepted it and adapted to it is the mouse who finds the new cheese first. In other words, we have to keep going in the face of struggles and adversity instead of complaining and waiting for things to just happen. That is the secret to surviving the inevitable occurrence of change.
3. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne
How many times is too many times to re-read The Secret? The limit does not exist. The first time I read this book was in high school, but I did a refresher read after graduation and I get something new from it every time. This book is all about the law of attraction and how to think what you want into existence. My key takeaway is that you attract what you project, so in order to attract positivity into your life, you must be positive. With regards to graduation, I realized the longer I mourned my old university life, the deeper I fell into a post grad depression (article about this can be found on my blog). This book is a must-read. My favorite quote: “Everything happens for a reason, and that reason is there to serve you.”
4. #GIRLBOSS, by Sophia Amoruso
This book is on this list because it made me realize that when you find your passion, have meaning behind your mission and work hard at it, you will be successful, no matter what anyone tells you. I hate to admit that I’ve lost count of the amount of industry professionals that told me that it was unlikely I would be successful in my industry, based on my lack of experience and compared to the competition that is out there. Meanwhile, I proved them wrong by passing one of the hardest finance exams in the world and finding a full-time job in my field in the same month, after months of gruelling hard work, self-doubt and meltdowns. #GIRLBOSS taught me that it takes discipline, it takes talent, and a little bit of risk, but everyone can push boundaries and break down barriers, you just have to:
1. Question everything.
2. Abandon anything about your life and habits that might be holding you back.
3. Learn to create your own opportunities.
5. Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, by David Goggins
Okay, so I haven’t actually read this one yet – but I received it by strong recommendation by one of my closest friends. It’s a memoir by David Goggins, about how he went from a depressed young man who had a rough childhood, to accomplishing his dream of being a Navy SEAL. His theory is that most of us only use 40% of our capabilities, and shows how he jumped through hurdles to overcome fear and eliminate pain and reach his full potential.
The secret to enjoying life after graduation is realizing that it’s a new beginning, and for the first time in your life, you are free to take your life into your hands, with no set commitments like the start of the semester or the constraints of exam season. You are responsible for your own actions, and capable of changing your circumstances, as well as the world – it all starts with your mind, so feed it well.
Published by Tara Joanne
A university graduate stuck between a rock and a hard place - graduating, and finding my way in the real world.