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Post-Grad Advice You Should Know

Amanda Maggiore

College graduation is a huge next step to post-grad life. In this next phase of life, there is no other phase that is on the horizon. Now YOU determine your life. You make the decisions that will shape your day-to-day. There are so many things college didn’t teach you to get you ready for the real world but we are here to help guide you through your first years of post-grad life.


What College Didn’t Teach Me touches on some of the most important pieces when coming out of college. The first thing I want people who are entering post-grad life is that it’s okay if things don’t go perfectly smoothly for you right away! Actually, things will go all different ways, and you won’t be ready, but that’s what makes it fun.


Here are a few areas of advice that will jump-start post-grad life.


Don’t Compare Your Life To Others

Every person is at a different phase of life. Some are moving away while others are staying close to home. Every person is on their own track, including you. You do not need to compare yourself to what you see on social media. Embrace where you are in life. Stop for a second and look around at how far you have come. That is what should be your focus. Everything else will fall into place when the time is right.


You might be jealous that your friends are getting married and having kids. While it might sting for a moment, just think, you want to make sure you end up with the right person. The hardest but most necessary thing to do is to have patience and wait. There is a plan for all of us, we just don’t always know what it consists of. Jealousy can cause a lot of negative behavior and thoughts, eliminate it. Change your thought pattern and think “One day, I will be here too” and move on. Be happy for others and if they are the right people, they will be happy for you as well.


Comparing yourself to others goes both ways, good and bad. You might think you aren’t strong enough, rich enough, smart enough, or moving fast enough compared to people you admire and look up to. But also, you might think you are doing better than others. Never shame anyone for where they are in their journey. Some people have more roadblocks and setbacks than others. Judging as they move along their way only reflects negatively on you. If you see someone struggling, offer to help. Give them advice, and show them what they can do to improve their situation. Stay humbled and humiliated as you go through your growing journey.


Instead of comparing yourself to others, think about ways that you can improve yourself. What parts of life could use a little more attention? Focus on areas of improvement that benefit you in the long run. It could be anything. You could need to up your skincare routine, make it a goal to get sunlight every day, or even call your relatives on a more frequent occasion. Whatever piece of your life you choose to improve on, know that it is a journey specifically designed for you. Other people might have the same goals but every approach is different. You do what you think is best for you. That is all that matters in the end.

You can make the life you always desired happen. Take the time to put in the work and I promise, pieces will begin to fall into place. Go at your pace and do what you want to create the best post-grad life.


Invest In Yourself

Do you know who the most important person is right now? You. Yes, only you. No that is not selfish. Sometimes we get lost trying to please everyone in our life, our spouse, family, friends, and even work. We work hard to make sure everyone is content and often forget to take care of our needs.


I know that sometimes I am worrying about everyone else's situation that I forget what is going on for myself. When that happens, I notice parts of my own life are slipping away because I am giving so much of my attention and focus to others. While being selfless is not a bad thing, we just need to find a balance between me time and them time.


This begins with reflecting on how much we do self-care. Self-care is widely talked about now which is great, but putting the actions into play is what matters most. Invest in yourself and your future. What can you do today that will benefit you in the short and long term? I can tell you one thing, scrolling through TikTok is not the answer, (I am guilty too). Work hard to set yourself up for success, in all areas of life.


Put together a plan, goals, and something to strive for and work towards. Having a vision of what you want your life and routine to look like will guide you in making beneficial decisions. You will be more conscious of your time, money, and efforts if you constantly think about what you are wanting to achieve. It is a domino effect and when you begin this pattern in one area of your life, it floods over to the rest.


Think about how it will feel to be looking back at all that you have changed and accomplished because you decided to invest in yourself. You will recognize how far you have come and what you are truly capable of. Take the time to build your life. You have more capabilities than you even know.


The prime time is at the beginning of post-grad. This is the time to reinvent yourself and your visions. Make it a goal to create the life that you desire. All pieces will fall into place as they should.

Friends Don't Stay Forever

This is a sad but true reality. Friends don’t stick around forever. I think we briefly learned this lesson as we graduated high school and started the chapter of college. We realized that only the few we are closest to will stay in touch and put in the effort to keep a friendship going. Others move on with their lives, but that is okay. As you graduate college and begin your post-grad ventures, the people from the last four years are not all going to make the cut. As time goes on, you outgrow each other. You become distant because you have found your own calling and paths to go down. Sometimes, communication fades and life goes on. This is ironic to say considering our world now offers about a million different ways to communicate.


As time goes on, you outgrow people. Not everyone has the same agenda, goals, aspirations, and wants. That is what is supposed to happen. While you might mourn losing a friend for a while, know that if someone was removed from your life there is a reason. There is ALWAYS a reason someone is no longer around. You might not know it yet, but one day you will discover the why behind life’s movements.


Take a look at who you have now. Are they benefiting you? Uplifting you and supporting you? Are they on the same level as you? Meaning, are they making good life decisions that will help them and rub off on you? If the answer is no to any of these, it is time to drop them. It sounds harsh, but when people you are around are hindering your growth, then they don’t belong in your life.


What I have learned in post-grad is that keeping a few people close is what helps me improve. Finding the sweet spot of friends but also supporters and someone else working on themselves as well. When you surround yourself with good behavior and mindsets, you see it rub off in a lot of what you do.


If you are looking for more high-quality friends and people you can relate to more, seek out to find them. It might be as simple as Bumble BFF or a local Facebook group. Or if you are someone that does best relating to people by doing things, join a rec league or some sort of activity that you like. That breaks the ice and allows you to bond over one similarity, to begin with. If you are really feeling bold, go to restaurants, airport lounges, and other high-end places alone. You would be amazed at the people you meet and how connections can grow into something you weren’t expecting.


Leave the old, hindering friends and make room in your life for the new and beneficial friendships that can come your way. Keep your circle tight while always being aware of the people you surround yourself with in post-grad life.


Create Good Habits and Stick With Them

We have all tried those New Year's resolutions and they just seem to fall off. I am here to tell you a few things. You do not need a new year to begin a healthy habit. You begin right after reading this blog. You can start in the fall. Whenever you choose to begin your journey, go all out. Find habits that you know you need to either improve on or introduce into your life and stick with them. If you are doing good things day in and day out, it will benefit you in the long run.


Habits take work, but so does quitting. Which hard work would you rather have? The kind where you keep fighting no matter how tiring and exhausting it gets or the kind where you throw in the towel every 30-60 days because you don’t want to keep fighting. Make yourself proud by sticking to something that is self-improving for a long time until it becomes second nature.


Reflect on what habits you need to change or introduce to your life, but keep going from there. Write down what you will do to change them, daily. How will you ensure that you are keeping your word to yourself? Find a way to keep yourself motivated and constantly working on this habit. You will find that after three months of doing it consistently, there is a significant change. Once you get past the initial “hard time,” it will be part of your routine. Think about everything we do today. It happens because we learned this habit at some point in our lives. When you continue to do something repeatedly, it has a higher chance of surviving the “bad days” when you don’t feel like it or feel like reverting back to your old ways.


Your life post-grad is what you make it. Take this information and apply it to your every day because this is what impacts your life, not a test in a classroom. What College Didn’t Teach Me talks about more life lessons learned after graduating college and how you can learn from them. Order yours today!



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Guest
May 03, 2023
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Perfect advice for post grad life!

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Guest
Apr 30, 2023
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Great advice for everyone starting their post grad life!

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