In roughly three hundred and one days, I’ll be a college graduate. I’ll walk across the stage, shake the hand of the Dean and my academic career will come to an end. And I have no idea where I’ll go from there.

Up until now, my life has been highly structured. I went straight to college after high school, and now, as I prepare to leave, that familiar rhythm of five-day weeks and holiday breaks and parties on the weekend, is cracking beneath my feet. The rules are changing, and I have been tasked with changing with them.

For many, the topic of post-graduation plans is stress-inducing to say the least. The thought of locking into any sort of career path can feel daunting as the ever-changing world seemingly becomes increasingly unforgiving.

This isn’t the whole picture. As Allison Schrager writes for Bloomberg, “There are legitimate reasons to think the economy is harder and less forgiving, but the worrying is becoming a vicious cycle. No wonder the younger generation is less rebellious than previous generations — it seems like there is no margin for error.”

We’re not taking enough risks.

This is no surprise. After dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in our last years of high school and a staggered return to normalcy during our defining college years, many of us have been left feeling anxious, depressed or even lost. A poll of 96,000 college students in 2021 found that 44% of them reported symptoms of depression, and 37% reported anxiety disorders.

So where do we go from here? Our fears are real, and they have kept us grounded for our whole lives. But now is the time to face them, and to do that, we must reframe what we want our success to look like.

Approaching life after graduation and achieving our aspirations for ourselves may mean being willing to hang up our pride. According to the Wealth Research Group, 98% of people die before accomplishing their dreams. And one of the biggest reasons why is because our expectations are way too high.

For example, many have heard of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule. It is often interpreted as stating that you must spend 10,000 on a subject to become an expert. However, as Josef Cruz writes for Medium, “This is absolutely not what he said or meant. He meant that if you spend 10,000 hours on something, you will be such a world-class expert that people will often refer to you simply by your first name, like Peyton, Tiger, Venus, Kobe, or Oprah. Having said that, there is no point staring at the mountain from the valley and simply never taking that first step because there are 9,999 more steps to take before you reach the top. You have to focus on what’s in front of you.”

If we focus wholeheartedly on the destination, we will lose our footing. Because the truth is not as glamorous as putting 10,000 hours in and reaping the benefits. But we so often forget the struggle that it takes to get there.

The truth is that we will fail. Because success is not about perfection. Success is determined by our resolve when we are beaten down and broken and how we choose to move forward when it feels like the odds are against us. Surveys show that 29% of us will likely completely change career paths. We may find out that we’re not passionate about the field that we chose, or maybe that we found something better. So there is no reason to put all of your worry into the fear of not making it.

You don’t have to have it all figured out.

No one does.

This next chapter of our lives does not always have to be about excelling to the highest degree. It can be about whatever we want. There are no rules, so do not let your expectations hold you down. Let your uncertainty take you as far as it can because it won’t last forever.

And when it finally runs out, and you are much older and wiser, you’ll be lucky enough to look back and reminisce on your younger years and all the things that you didn’t know. The most important question is not what you’re going to do after you graduate, but rather what you’re going to do with your life.

And that’s completely up to you. And no matter how daunting it seems, the answer is not somewhere out in the distance. It starts with today. If we can be intentional with our lives in the smallest ways now, then life will never sneak up on us.

And when the day comes that we cross the stage, we’ll be ready. Because we will know that it isn’t really the end.

It is only a new beginning.

Janson McNair is an Opinion Writer. Contact him at [email protected].