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Navigating the Real World is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people in their teens and 20s navigate important life decisions and challenges. Read more about us.
Latest interview quotes
Don’t waste time worrying what others think of you
“I sometimes found myself worrying too much about what other people thought of me, and it really wasn’t helpful. The more I worried about my social life, the worse my grades were. You shouldn’t care about how people view you in high school because in four years you’ll be out of the school and probably even out of the town your school was in. That social stuff really won’t matter anymore.”
— in Don’t waste time caring about what other people think of you
Internships provided on-the-job experience
“I’ve been lucky to have a few internships where I got to do actual reporting. In graduate school I did an internship with the Syracuse Post Standard, and once I got to write the day’s front-page story. That was something unexpected, and it was very gratifying. It showed me that I was doing stories that people actually cared about, which doesn’t happen a lot in internships. Internships are great because they give you a taste of what you’ll be doing when you get out into the field, and I feel like that’s the best preparation you can get.”
Think ahead to prepare for your future in the workforce
“Kids need to be looking ahead more than they are; they need to be out visiting offices and getting a sense of what work is like and what it means to have a job and been a good employee. Employers I’ve spoken with talked a lot about ‘soft skill’ issues: showing up on time, dressing in a professional manner, behaving professionally, doing what you’re supposed to do when you’re supposed to do it, working collaboratively with teams, etc. Those ‘soft skills’ apply across all of the working world, and kids don’t have them.”
Take your classes seriously
“Go to class. I know so many people who are like, “Yeah, whatever, I’m just not going to class today.” And they either just squeak by barely or they fail. It’s a big waste of money. But if you go to your hour-long class and you take in the information, you’re going to do well. If you put the time in, it’s going to be worth it in the end. I’ve learned that.”
It’s smart to have a back-up plan when choosing a college
“Often times when you’re in high school, you’re so done with the town you’re from and the people you’ve grown up with you feel like you need to move to California to rid yourself of all that and kind of grow up. I looked at schools that were mostly about 1,000 miles away. I got into a bunch of schools in Florida and one in Vermont. UNH was my closest and I was like, ‘No, I’ll never choose that.’ Then the day I was supposed to decide and send in my deposit crept up very quickly, and I kind of had a mini freak-out.”
Taking a gap year a good option
“I think taking a gap year before going to university is a really good idea. Of my friends who have done that, a few never went back to college, but most of them did. The people who absolutely have no idea what they want to do and aren’t very hard workers, those are the ones who drop off the face of the earth. If you’re set on going to university but you’re not sure what you want to do, take a year off.”
Don’t be afraid to change your mind
“Don’t be afraid to change your mind. A month and a half before I was supposed to leave for college, I didn’t want to tell anybody that I didn’t want to go. I was afraid to tell my family and my friends. I didn’t want to be a letdown, but you have to remember that what you are doing is not for other people; it’s for yourself. You definitely want to be who you are. Don’t be afraid to change your mind. Don’t be afraid to voice your opinion because this is your future; it’s not anybody else’s.”
— in Don’t be afraid to change your mind in order to find something that’s right for you
Large student loans can limit your options after college
“I have a friend who did very well, but he had to take out a relatively large private loan. As a result his payments are equivalent to more than a mortgage payment every month. So he’s stuck having to work at a job that he may not prefer to do, whereas he could be buying a house right now. Some of these expenses for education are just tremendous, especially when you have to go into the private loan sector, and I think counterproductive overall to the economy because you could be buying a house or using that money for something else that is more stimulating to the economy instead of paying back the loan company.”
— in Friend with very high student loan payments that seriously restrict his options
Misconceptions about life after high school
“You only have a certain amount of tries in life before you realize that your chances are up and you’re stuck working some low-paying job to pay off your debt. At least at the high school level, my impression was that the world is full of opportunity: if I try hard enough, I will make it. You pick a career when you’re in high school, you work hard, you get there, you start making all this money and you live happily ever after. I think that’s a very unrealistic picture that they instill in kids.”
Go with your gut
“Go with your gut. If you know there is something you really want to do, don’t let anybody tell you you can’t do it, and don’t make yourself believe that you can’t either. I always wanted to be a guidance counselor. I knew that’s exactly what I wanted to do, but because my brother is an educator and because my mother worked for the school department, I strayed away from that. It kind of felt like I was following them.”
— in Follow your heart
Wants to go to college with a specific goal
“The one thing that scares me about college is that I want to make sure to go for the right thing. I’ve seen a lot of my friends go to college and the thing that kills me is that they’ll spend X amount of money to go and then you ask them, ‘What are you go to be when you grow up?’ and the number one answer is, ‘I don’t know.’ I want to make sure that when I spend that money to go to college, it’s going to be for something that’s going to benefit me and something that I’ll actually be able to utilize in my career.”
Keep your priorities straight
“I sometimes found myself worrying too much about what other people thought of me, and it really wasn’t helpful. The more I worried about my social life, the worse my grades were. You shouldn’t care about how people view you in high school because in four years you’ll be out of the school and probably even out of the town your school was in. That social stuff really won’t matter anymore.”
— in Don’t waste time caring about what other people think of you
Ask questions and find mentors
“Seek a lot of mentors. There’s nothing wrong with looking to your parents for advice, but find other people too: teachers, someone you meet in the professional world, people from your community. You should have as many people as you can giving you advice and helping you figure out what you really enjoy doing. It’s great to ask questions. Keeping your eyes open and being curious about what you see in the world around you will help you get a more complete view of the world.”
Show off your personality for a great interview
“I would say the one thing that motivates any recruiter to really latch on to a candidate and want to have them work in their organization is personality. Someone could have the best education and the most experience possible, but if they show up with no personality then that really turns me off as a recruiter. We’re looking for somebody who shows up to the interview excited, demonstrates that they’ve done their research on the company, and also has the education and experiences to back it up.”
Make time to study, and don’t give up
“Determination and the willingness to try the same thing over and over again are essential for student success. The other thing that is a big deal for a lot of our students is having a time and a place to work quietly everyday. A lot of our students at USM work and have families, and their time is very divided. The people who make it work find a way to study quietly where there isn’t a little kid constantly pulling on their arm or their boyfriend saying, ‘C’mon, let’s go out, you can do that later.’”
Auto loan horror story
“As soon as I was hired as a full-time employee, I was really excited and decided to buy a new car. I had about $6,000 left to pay on the car that I had, but I thought, ‘Well, I’ll trade this in, and I’ll get a nice, brand new car.’ So I went to the local dealership, found a car I liked, and after they crunched all the numbers they told me, ‘ Your initial car payment is going to be steep, but after a year we’ll be able to refinance for you and lower the monthly payment.’ That sounded fine, since I was living at home and didn’t have any other bills, so I signed.”
School is more than just stress
“I didn’t really realize it at the time, but high school was a lot of fun. I wish now that I’d had the perspective to appreciate the fact that I had the chance to be stretching my mind in all these ways, learning English literature, the sciences, history. I wish that I could have appreciated the ways that I was being stretched and developed, but I didn’t at the time because schoolwork just meant stress.”
Realizing when a job isn’t a good match
“I was looking for lab jobs when I first graduated from college, since I thought that working in research would help me get into grad school later on. I started applying to research hospitals all over Boston, sending out a ton of resumes. I ended up applying to this chemistry lab. I wasn’t really interested in chemistry, but I thought, why not? I figured I would have to branch out a little bit if I wanted to find a job.”
Getting her GED through Maine Adult Education
“I got laid off from my job, so I figured I might as well go for my GED. What the heck? I wasn’t doing anything else. When I went in to Adult Ed, I took the GED pre-test and knew right away that I was going to need help with the math. I signed up for the math class and came in during the day to work on my math skills. My teacher was fabulous, and I learned quite a bit. It was interesting to learn that I actually knew more than I thought I did. It made me wonder why I’d put it off for so long!”
Learning to manage household chores
“Living on your own is a challenge. Everyone always says you miss mom’s cooking after you move out of the house, and it’s true. When you come home after working or going to school all day, the last thing you want is to do chores. But that’s the real world. It’s difficult at first, but after a while you fall into a rhythm and learn to manage. Fortunately for me, I had a good family behind me who were ready to catch me if I ever did fall behind.”
— in Living on your own
Latest Blog Entries
Pajamas, sweatpants, and slippers cool for school?
Pajama Panic! Pajama-palooza! Pajama pandemonium! Pajama…predicament? I’m all out of alliterative exclamations, it seems, so let’s get to the point here: teenagers have taken to wearing their PJs to school, and this trend will inevitably bring about the utter ruination of America. Or so says one Michael Williams, a commissioner in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, who is trying to pass a ban on wearing pajamas in public.
My worst job ever (…so far)
At some point in his or her life, almost everyone is required to work a totally un-fun, demeaning, or heart-wrenchingly miserable job. It’s a rite of passage, and, as clichéd dads everywhere like to say, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” While this a flawed statement – um, ever hear of paraplegia or traumatic brain injury, clichéd dad? – there’s some truth to it when it refers to bad jobs and not horrific physical harm. You can work a terrible job at any age, but teenagers seem to really luck out when it comes to landing low on the employment totem pole.
Quick & creative last-minute gift ideas
I assume that, because you’re so on top of things and totally “with it,” you’ve already finished up your holiday shopping and are now sitting back, basking in the bliss of the season. Wait, you haven’t? Oh. I guess you’re in deep trouble, then! Don’t you know that if you fail to give someone a gift, he or she will immediately stop loving you and never speak to you ever again? Are you panicked yet?
From the Archives: “What Makes a Good Party?”
‘Tis the season for parties, or so I hear from people with social lives. It must be exhausting to go through all those invitations for ugly sweater parties, cookie exchange parties, kwanzaa parties, Feliz Navidad fiestas, New Year’s Eve minglers—whew! Fortunately, I don’t have to sweat over any of that. Instead I’m free to spend my holiday season peacefully staring at my cat as he licks himself. Lucky me.
5 ways to ditch December depression
Although it’s not technically winter yet – we’ve got to wait until the solstice on December 22nd for it to be official – and we’ve had fairly mild weather here in Maine so far this season, I nonetheless feel a certain snowy sense of sorrow beginning to set in. It’s cold outside, it’s dark at 4 pm, and the radio won’t stop playing that nightmarish “Little Drummer Boy” song, no matter how much I plead with the universe to spare me the pain of hearing “ba-rump-a-bum-bum” yet again.
HIGH SCHOOL HORRORS: Bullying, Part 1
Above you’ll find a clip from the film Back to the Future, in which we see poor George McFly (played by Crispin Glover, the love of my life) being bullied by the beefy and obnoxious Biff Tannen. I’m posting this video not to make light of George’s suffering, but rather as a clever segue into a conversation on the topic of bullying. Bullying is a serious problem that affects millions of teenagers in middle and high schools across the country.
Staggeringly helpful tips for a productive Thanksgiving break
Upon consulting my calendar this morning, I was alarmed to discover that we are fast approaching the beloved holiday known to some as Thanksgiving, to others as Turkey Day, and to others as ‘that day before all the sales at Best Buy.’ Just in case you’re as out of touch with reality as I am, that particular holiday is actually set to take place tomorrow. Funny how these things sneak up on you, isn’t it? …