By Chloe M. Brown
SAN ANTONIO—After graduation, there are many thoughts swarming your head. What’s the next step? How do I become a functioning adult? What does it mean to be out of school? I don’t have any of the answers, but I know of some books that do.
For some reason or another, when someone vastly older than a millennial gives advice after college, students tend to tune out. It could be because so much has changed since then or the fact that it is easy to distance oneself with time. That’s why I love Don’t Worry, It Gets Worse: One Twentysomething’s (Mostly Failed) Attempts at Adulthood by Alida Nugent. The author Nugent is like that older quirky college friend that has already graduated and is regaling the struggles of being a postgraduate student because she was one not long ago. What I like most about this book is that it doesn’t keep hammering about struggling life after graduation instead interludes with the delightful moments of no longer having to be in school. It’s a pleasant and short book about how graduating can be difficult, but you’ll find your way through all the mess. It may get worst be eventually, things will make sense.
Another good memoir kind of book about life after college is Post Grad: Five Women and Their First Year Out of College by Caroline Kitchener. This book follows five women for a year after they graduate from college and the struggles they face trying to find their way in the world. Post Grad takes that first year out of college and challenges it what most grad students might be life will be. The portal of this book shows the many challenges that individuals will face as they are navigating through adulthood and they begin to learn how to defend the choices they make. The reason that graduates should read this book is that it takes a funny approach to a subject that troubles many students. It’s a way to quell early fear in graduates and for students to be able to face them head on when their time comes.
For millennials, the word “Adulting” has become common vocabulary. When a person is “adulting,” they are doing something that a normal adult would do. There are two excellent books that are good guide books on how to learn to “adult” properly. Almost Adulting: All You Need to Know to Get It Together (Sort Of) by Arden Rose is becoming one of my favorite post grad reads. For anyone who likes the humor of the YouTube star Grace Helbig, then don’t wait to pick up this hilarious book about trying to be an adult. This book is not only a quirky how-to-guide to survive being an adult, but it also gives personal advice on how to just be a person growing up in the twenty-first century. This book just came out in March, which means that all the adulting advice is relevant to the millennial and how to find their way in a post-graduate world.
My next grown up how-to-guide is Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps by Kelly Williams Brown. First off, how-to-books with steps are always fun because you can skip around to the steps that you like. Yet, what I enjoy about this book is that not only does it focus on how to be an adult, but it focuses on what it’s like to be an adult after being a student for such a long time. It’s a tough transition from a student to a working adult just joining the workforce. However, Brown takes on the confusing world of being an adult and puts into simple terms for the reader. It’s a guide to being an adult without always having to act like an adult. Overall, this a good guide for grads to take with them after college.
Being a post graduate student has its challenges. At times, it feels like there are more things that you don’t know over what you do know. However, one of the wonderful things about living in the twenty-first century is having the ability share experience with one other. Pick up one of these books as they are all out and ready for fortunate graduates to read. There is no ads to display, Please add some
