Advice: Lessons learned
Life changes quickly after high school
“Two or three years out of high school, you’ll be a completely different person. You’re going to grow up and have to start paying bills and paying rent; your priorities will completely change. What your peer group thinks of what you’re doing and stuff like that doesn’t matter anymore. Your friends change, people have babies, people get into relationships; people get married. It’s hard to wrap your head around how quickly everything changes in your twenties.”
Getting into debt to keep up with wealthy friends
“I went to a college with a lot of wealthy people. I remember one day I said I didn’t have money and somebody said, ‘oh, just go to the ATM.’ On an intellectual level, I knew that was ridiculous and wow, what a difference. That is really when I began to understand class difference and how profound it was, and yet at the same time I did what I needed to do to try to keep up. What ended up happening was that, because I had a credit card, I used it and I maxed it out. It took me years to get out from under that.”
— in Getting into credit card debt and finally getting out of it
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.”
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.”
In college, you have to set your own standards
“College courses are really different from high school in that your teacher won’t call on you or check up on you very much. You’re expected to do the reading and if you don’t, that’s your problem. There weren’t as many assignments as in high school, so you’d have a big test or a paper midway through the semester. I felt like I needed more feedback before that midpoint, to let me know how I was doing and if I was doing okay.”
Don’t play hookey at work
“A strong work ethic is very important, there’s no doubt about that. I will admit that when I worked for Parks & Recreation, I got too comfortable. I would encourage kids not to get too comfortable in their jobs. Don’t abuse sick time, don’t abuse vacation time, because those absences reflect on you. Employers look at that, and even when you go to apply to a new job, your new employer might look at that history. When it shows that you’re not willing to be there for work, that’s a bad thing.”
— in Work Ethic
Our Picks in Lessons learned
Editor’s Pick: Living on your own is expensive
“There are a lot of things you want to do with your money, but there are a lot of things you need to do with your money. You have to pay for a repair on this, or gas for that, or whatever. It all adds up. When you’re living on your own you have to pay for rent and utilities. There is gas for your car, plus maintenance — oil changes and stuff like that. And food was huge. I had a kitchen, but I either had to eat the food I bought really quickly or it was going to go bad and then I’d have to spend more money.
