Post-Graduate Depression?-?The sweet spot between thinking too much and thinking too?little.

So I am now a “Graduate”.

All through Graduation week, a line from “We don’t believe what’s on tv” by Twenty One Pilot, kept ringing in my head and it goes “What if my dream does not happen, will I just change what I told my friends. Don’t wanna know who I will be when I wake up from a dreamers sleep”. And isn’t that how we all feel?

I can’t help but think of how all my life, I had wondered what this would feel like. But now, I am here and I don’t feel any different. I am not one of those people who just got hit by the reality of graduating — Quite frankly, in my head, I graduated the moment I entered my final semester.

But now, we’re here, pictures everywhere and everyone is still basking in the euphoria of liberation. It hasn’t quite hit yet — Well, for some, it has. But the reality is now, you are “ON YOUR OWN”. You are now more aware that you are solely responsible for the decisions and actions you take in life. You’ve always been, but now, it’s more glaring.

Then there comes the infamous “Post-Graduate depression”. This is when the butterflies fade and like a newly-wedded couple, the honeymoon phase stops because life after school wasn’t quite what you thought. So what happens? And how do you stop that?

I think we either think too little about what life will be or we think too much. Think too little and you become nonchalant and passive, think too much and you become anxious and fearful. But if I’m being honest, I don’t have a drawn-out plan — I have goals but hardly a clearly-mapped out plan — but I don’t envy those who do and here’s why.

I used to plan a lot, but over time, I would see myself evolve differently than I imagined. And this is because the past versions of myself could only plan with the knowledge I had of myself at the time. But knowledge isn’t static, especially if you are committed to growing yourself.

Remember that phase you thought was the hardest point in your life, that phase you thought was going to crush you, that was filled with so much uncertainty but yet you embraced it, made a few mistakes — maybe even cried a little? Remember? Now, take a look at how you’ve grown past that. And after being through different phases of myself, I created a mantra which has kept me calm through those phases; “Keep evolving, do the best you can at the time and trust the process”. That’s the sweet spot I’ve found between thinking too much and too little.

So I can’t promise you that you’ll have it all figured out or that everything will go as planned — most times it doesn't. But I can promise you this, as long as you don’t give up, understanding that you are in your timeline and you are constantly evolving to be the version of yourself you need to be at every point, you’ll have the strength to keep going even on the hardest days.

So cheers to the future versions of ourselves yet unborn!