From high school to college
Congratulations!
On behalf of the board of admissions, I am pleased to inform you that you’ve been accepted into the School of Adulthood. A transformative experience awaits you!
P.S. Please don’t bother looking for your brochure or guidebook in the mail. Those don’t exist.
Good luck!
Chances are you will probably read this “letter” sometime after you graduate college. The problem is, you should have received it way sooner.
At the age of 18, you are officially, by law, given the keys to your life. However, at 18, most of us are still infants, as we trek a slow, predictable path up the mountain where the diploma of adulthood awaits us.
There’s only one problem…
Independence doesn’t lie at the peak of the mountain, but below it, and the only way down is to jump. Ultimately, your assignment is to learn how to fly. However, the prerequisite is learning to fall.
Unfortunately, institutions, society, and even our own parents are so invested in keeping us in the developmental nest for as long as possible, that we miss out on years of valuable wisdom and self-discovery. We have become victims of an endless transition, forgetting completely what it means to adapt.
If childhood is about growing your wings; adulthood is about trusting them.
In other words, take control of your life by surrendering to it. Muster the courage to have uncompromising trust in yourself. It is sometimes far better to make your own mistakes than to follow someone else’s correct decision. The more leaps of faith you can take, the more intimately you become acquainted with yourself, and therein lies the very fabric of self-confidence and independence.
Leaving the nest was once the result of a natural progression; it is now a choice. While you weigh your decisions, know that there is no such thing as the “perfect time”. 20 feet will always look like 100 just before you dive off the cliffs of comfort.
Ultimately, we are all destined to jump. If you want to be ahead of the game, don’t wait until you graduate college. Start trusting yourself now. Make big decisions. Claim your independence.
And one day, you’ll discover that you’ve been holding the guidebook to adulthood all along.
