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I had so many plans about my life after graduation and I was so ready for it. Like, SO ready. The plans I had in mind were the kind that doesn’t involve a stupid uniform, tolerating people I just didn’t gel with, and a routine I didn’t choose. I knew I wanted to work more to get some savings, but I also knew that I wanted to just lay down on my bed with the fan on in Summer for hours and not for a second feel guilty about not studying. Like many people, I wanted to make the most of the holidays before Uni started, and when Uni started I was going to throw myself into everything. I was so ready for this life after school and now it’s kind of adorable to look back at how little I knew about how things would be one year down the track.

  1.  It’s not a race to be successful.

There’s an enormous misconception that the most successful people are the ones who shoot out of Year 12, glide through a University degree and pick up a job featured in Forbes magazine on their first year out of University. Gap years, deferred degrees, changing jobs, changing degrees, exchanges – it’s nooooormal! Who cares if you get in the full time career world a year later than Sally from modern history? Your life paths will be SO different, the comparison is ridiculous. Take your time, and most importantly, enjoy this time!

  1. You choose who you stay friends with.

Before I graduated I knew that some people would drop right out of my life and I was really excited about that for some people, and kind of sad about it for others. I didn’t realise how much it was about CHOOSING to remain friends with someone rather than it naturally happening. When some friends go away to study, some friends go to work, and the other friends all go to different Unis, it isn’t about naturally staying in touch. So much of keeping your friends is making an effort to stay in touch. Low maintenance friendships are the best after school.

  1. Everyone changes.

For better or for worse. There’s no shame in change. You can hardly blame someone for finding an identity that suits them like skin and choosing to own it. Your best friend will change in ways you couldn’t have imagined. Most likely, they’ll become more independent, they’ll also make new friends, they’ll find new struggles that they didn’t have before and they’ll find new ways of dealing with them. You’ll go through the exact same process.

  1. You get to start all over.

If you want to! It’s not necessarily a “new year, new me” kind of promise, but more of a conscious effort to make time for the things that matter most to you. School plonks one huge commitment right in the middle of your life, and it has the ability to take over your priorities. You get to redesign your life after school to suit exactly what and who you value most.

  1. You can imagine where you’ll be in a year from now, but it’s going to be different.

I had no idea I’d be interning where I am, I’d have the job I do now, I had no idea I’d own a flipping liquid foundation, I certainly didn’t think I’d be typing on a Mac (always a HP girl) and I couldn’t have guessed I’d be swamped with all kinds of family issues. I kind of predicted that I’d be at Uni, hopefully doing well, and I’d be working heaps at my original part time job. Really, I’ve added an extra fourteen things to the list. But, it’s all turned out better than I could have planned.

  1. You get to be you.

In high school there are people who know they aren’t living their true authentic lives, and there are other people who have no idea that they aren’t living up to their potential until they leave school. Now, I get to read Sylvia Plath’s work every day, I get to paint my nails blue and I eat Doritos as I read magazines. I thought I was truly myself in High School, but now I am my true self, and always developing that identity. If school restricts you, you’re in for a good time of equal parts change and stability after school.

  1. Being adult-ish can suck sometimes.

It’s exhausting. Commuting can be hard, paying for more things than you did before is rough, and finding the motivation is tough. After graduating, you enter a stage when you get to decide what you do, and no one is forcing you to be there. You don’t have to be in a degree, and I’m sure you’ll want to pull out or switch several times. The only person who can keep you following the path you want is you. School is compulsory, but jobs, degrees, diplomas, it’s all a choice.

  1. If you weren’t one for school, there’s a place for you out there.

Happy announcement: A whole big world is waiting for you! A perfect place that’s either ready for you, or ready for you to carve out for yourself. In school we so often have to conform to a student archetype, which will help you survive your time in uniform but when you’re out, you’ve got to slip into a new agenda. If you were terrible at studying, it’s a good feeling to know that there’s so many avenues of happiness, success and good times that have nothing to do with studying. Alternatively, if you are the one who loves studying, you’re gonna have a blast next year getting to study exactly what you want.

  1. You’re capable of more than you think.

Year 12 tests you in all kinds of tedious, tearful ways. If  When you make it through, you deserve a bloody good pat on the back. Life after school will present all kinds of crazy situations that you couldn’t have foreseen. If you’re moving into full time work – that’s a huge step. If you’re moving into studying, the heat turns up. You’re ready for this. You are capable of so much.

  1. You’ll probably end up loving learning again.

High School can teach you how to learn in a manner that enables you to spit it all out again in an exam. When you leave school you inadvertently learn some of the most important lessons and facts in your life so far. You’ll find new ways to love learning, and it will feel really good.

UNI NOTES: EMPOWER YOUR UNIVERSITY JOURNEY