Congratulations
There are many joys to being a teacher. Watching “sharp-as-a-pin” seniors graduate is one of them. You’ve finished this race, you’ve done the work, you’ve earned your seat at the alumni table. Your paid back your benefactors with your sweat, love, and tears.
It’s a milestone
I say this with a down-beat tone. Sure, it’s exciting and a huge “thought bubble” of reflection, but in the end, it’s also just a milestone. A milestone that gets passed like a mile marker on the highway. Milestones are queer like that. It’s the marking of time, or chronology, or process. It’s scheduled, perfunctory, and a date.
For me, it’s not the milestone that is meaningful. It’s not the “finish line” or the “starting commencement line” that’s important. It’s more than that, it’s the journey and the cool stuff you pick up on your way.
The journey
Call me Joyless John, or the anti-romantic but the milestone is not the journey. Just like a wedding ceremony is not a marriage. Trying to Instagram the day into 4 years of significance is just bad math. Instead, soak in the lovely greatness of the past four years, and what it augurs for your compound-interest life.
If you did it right, you’re walking away with $ Millions of skills, confidence, relationships, and #winning.
Intellectual muscles
PRO: The academic rigor is edifying. Like strength training, it hurts. It breaks down and builds back up. You will remember your most difficult classes, where you performed. You earned the medal.
CON: We learn what we are uniquely bad at. Some get “straight A” in everything like a Renaissance polyglot. Most do not, and that’s okay. Be strategic – find your unfair advantage. Find what comes easy to you, and hard for others. Double down on RBV. As Meryl Streep says, “What makes you different or weird, that is your strength.”
Open eyes, open ears
PRO: For me, university was eye-opening. University can be a lovely place. A place where people come from different homes, countries, faiths, beliefs, and norms. The kind of place where you hear phrases like:
- “Oh, I didn’t know that.”
- “Never been there, what’s it like?”
- “That’s interesting, never imagined that.”
As my mom likes to say, “different is not wrong.” This is something Americans need to keep telling ourselves.
CON: Everything cannot / should not be your thing. You are not a excel formula =Average (Everyone you meet). You are not =SUM (Everything you read). Surely, you should taste all the food – see what you like, and what works with your taste buds and stomach. And no, you don’t have to eat everything, every day, at every meal.
Point of view
PRO: It’s exciting to say “no” to something that doesn’t suit you. It took me a long time to get to this point, but when you’ve really thought / experienced / believed in something enough to demonstrate your preference, to stand up and be yourself. So brave, nice, and refreshing:
- “Yeah, I tried it. Not my thing.”
- “No thanks, I’m good.”
- “I hear you, AND that’s just not how I think.”
- “Sure, I’m not wired that way.”
- “If you have a moment, will walk you through my thinking.”
- “It’s just my opinion, but . . . . “
CON: We too often forget that education, clean water, personal safety is a privilege. 10% of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. Having options = privilege. Decision-making = privilege. Point of view = privilege.
No syllabus
PRO: Whoa, so many benefits, right?
- John’s 830am Monday class – maybe not.
- Team assignments with randomly selected people – maybe not.
- Jostling for class participation points – maybe not.
- You can engage as much as you want.
You choose your work, risk-tolerance, level of intensity (40 hours vs. 90 hours), geography.
You choose. Massive privilege.
CON: You are in explorer mode, not GPS mode. There are many S-curves, where your input will not equal your output, so you need to know when to be patient and when to be impatient.
- Patient: You’re new at a task or job. You’re learning. You’re not very good yet
- Impatient: You’re efficient and bored with your work; time to stretch yourself
Curiosity like a fire
PRO: Curiosity is fuel for your career here. When you are taking 124 units at university, everyone is nudging you to be curious, do the work, learn new things, test yourself, show up. Go, go, go.
I wish you could see “learning happening” like I do. My goal as a teacher is for students to leave more curious than when they came. Thankfully, this happens all the time. #Winning looks like:
- Receiving a photo of an automated Costa Coffee machine, after we discussed the company in class
- Hearing that a recent graduate – in consulting – was staffed on a client, of a company we discussed in class
- Getting a thank you email from a student who “used what we discussed in class” to land a job offer
- Learning that a student who took my Coursera specialization here, recently applied and got accepted to Emory
- Being asked a super thoughtful, difficult, “stump the teacher” question in class; making me learn
CON: It’s very easy to fall into the rhythmic lull of corporate routines. Trust me, I’ve wasted 2-3 years at a time before I snapped out of the corporate siren call. Keep asking good questions of your boss, your friends, yourself.
Head, heart, hands
One thing is consistent in post-college life. It’s all about the people you meet and what you learn. The learning will be less textbook, and more project-based. The tempo will be set by the project plan, not the syllabus. There is a performance review, not a final exam. There is a sales meeting, not Wonderful Wednesday.
In the age of machine learning, you need to be MORE human than ever. Remember the power of informational interviews and thank you cards. You will be surprised how many jobs, referrals, gigs, and endorsements you will get from those in your friend, colleague, professional network. Be a good egg, be a good human.
You’re not alone
Keep crushing. Keep asking good questions and continually get great advice from experts, friends, and those who love you. Basically, do more great work, and worry less. Worrying is wasted calories.