I’ve graduated from high school. Now what?
For those without a clue of what to do after high school
High school is dumb.
I graduated with 0 knowledge of what to do with my life.
What am I supposed to do now? Go to college like everyone else? What if I can’t get into a nice college? Do I have to go somewhere I don’t want to go?
Am I supposed to get a job? How do I even do that?
What do you love?
Honestly? Follow your heart.
What’s the point of doing something just for the money? Yes, sure, financial stability is great and all but that’s not what makes you happy. No one is happy just because they are rich.
Happy people are happy because they do what moves them. Because they give — as I wrote on a previous article of mine.
Be honest with yourself. Don’t speak, don’t tell anyone, just think about what makes you want to learn more. Personally, I love finances. So what do I do? I’m in Law school while taking various courses on finances. I am working towards my goal of working on finances, be that where it may. I’m just studying law because it’s one heck of a degree to have and it can only benefit me.
Pick whatever makes you want to stay up at night learning. Pick what you see yourself doing when you’re 45.
Get a job
Why shouldn’t you, right? I mean, if you aren’t going to college, you might as well go ahead and make some money.
To be honest with you, this is something I regret not doing. I wish I knew what I know now and instead of going to college, I had submitted some applications to a few jobs. I don’t even care what jobs, I just wish I’d had more.
Jobs give us so much knowledge of what life actually look like. It gives you experience and a taste for something you’d never experienced before. Purpose.
You might think you had a sense of purpose before, but you really didn’t. Nothing comes close to thinking “If I don’t go today, they are f*cked”. Honestly, that makes you feel like a grown-up if that makes any sense. You know what I mean when you do something that you don’t normally do and you feel like you are growing up and becoming an adult?
Working makes us grow because now, we have real responsibilities.
That’s something reading or going to college just won’t do.
Advice is just that. Advice
People will try to tell you that you must go to college in today’s economy in order to succeed, they will try to tell you that if you don’t go to a college you will be homeless by 22.
What I want you to say to those people is “F*ck off”. Unless they’re your parents. Don’t do that unless you really want to be homeless right away.
Ok, but why do older people say that? Yes, older people. Young people don’t do that, why should we? We don’t want to go to college either. I’ve been studying for 12 just so that I can go ahead and study for another 4 years? I’m super excited to study for 4 years non-stop — said no one ever.
I want you to follow your gut and do what you feel like you should do now.
I don’t care if that is to go get a job, go to college or take a year off. Just do what makes you happy, unless that’s staying in your mom’s basement playing videogames.
You are so young, what’s all the rushing for?
Chill
What are you rushing towards?
You have no idea what you are doing, why are you running through the dark?
Would you run in the middle of a forest where you couldn’t see a thing? No, you would be watching every step carefully. You wouldn’t run because you would most certainly fall. That’s life.
Neither you nor I have any idea what we are doing. I’ve spoken to a lot of adults with kids and they don’t know what the hell they are doing either. They are just going with the flow, calculating their risk and doing what they think will make them happy in life.
We are so young, why should we be worried that life is going to outrun us? It won’t, don’t worry.
Invest
You might be thinking “Bro, what am I supposed to invest? I have no money”.
Calm down, will you? I meant, invest in yourself, not in the stock market.
Read articles like these on Medium, listen to podcasts, research personal finances on youtube, take courses on EdX.
Strive to be a better and more mindful individual.
Work on your social skills, read about history, learn something about politics, write articles about what you’ve learned and most importantly, have fun doing it.
There’s no point in forcing anything because if you are forcing yourself to do something you just don’t like, you will just go back to your old habits and end up doing what you like. If you don’t like math, why are you trying to take a course on corporate finance? If you don’t know what RAM does, why are you diving into computer engineering?
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” — Karl Marx
Do what you are already keen on, develop your already somewhat good skills. Do not force yourself into something just because it makes money or because your parents are telling you so. You are your own person and your story is yours to write. That doesn’t mean a little push here and there aren’t needed, though, remember that.
