As a recent graduate, I know too well the dark pit of despair that the ‘real world’ brings.

Having had my twenty seconds of fame walking across the stage at graduation, what followed was a terrified graduate slowly opening the door to the abyss of uncertainty.

Suddenly I became my own horror story, immersed in a spiral of unending questions that I didn’t have the answer to. What are you going to do now? What job are you applying for? I felt like Alice, lost not in wonderland but in what I term, the Graduation Blues.

Thus, I decided to undergo a project to help the inhabitants of the Graduation Blues, by asking the general public for a piece of advice they would have given themselves at 21. I have had an array of responses but picked the three key pieces of advice to transform those blues into a number one hit.

Translation: Follow your dreams.

This may seem quite obvious; why would we choose to become obese, detriment our health and be forever depressed? Though, unfortunately many of us leave university, get pressurised into a job then get stuck. We become one of those four million employees who are working a minim of forty-eight hours a week, in a job we hate.

This is your Bilbo Baggins moment to follow your dream. It may not be easy; you might lose your way in Rivendell; encounter a variety of menacing orcs; may even overcome an obsessive compulsive disorder with a ring, but you’ll be doing it in the journey towards your dream.

Translation: Be Fearless

Self-doubt is an almost universal plague, arising at the most inconvenient of times, and resulting in an inhumane consumption of junk food that you never thought you’d be capable of. The tendency to tell ourselves that we can not achieve our goal; that we do not know enough; that we are not good enough, is self harming. This stems from belief that someone knows more which ultimately makes him or her better but, as famously spoken by William Goldman, ‘Nobody knows anything’. Life is in constant fluctuation, what the future holds is unknown. However, what can be controlled is the attitude towards it. ‘Nobody knows anything’ is about being fearless when approaching your next chapter.

 

Translation: Don’t give up

Big or small, personal or professional, obstacles are one of the few things we can be sure of in life. It can be a difficult experience but it is crucial to learn and move forward. Great strength lies in picking oneself back up and remaining optimistic about the future. Twelve publishing houses rejected J.K.Rowling, The Beatles were told “guitar groups are on the way out” and a newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he “lacked imagination and had no ideas”. All of these individuals encountered obstacles but kept moving forward to become the great successes they are today. So, in the words of the great Thomas Wayne (yes Batman’s dad), “Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”

If it works for Batman, it can work for you.