Watching classmates launch startups while you answer emails.
WATCHING CLASSMATES LAUNCH STARTUPS WHILE YOU ANSWER EMAILS.
Follow for more candid conversations about the post-grad reality.
Remember that electric hum of ambition on campus? The feeling that anything was possible, that you were destined for groundbreaking things? Then you graduated. For many of us, the transition from the intellectual intensity of our hallowed halls to the daily grind has been, well, weird. We expected to reshape industries, not necessarily to spend our Tuesdays perfecting pivot tables or writing polite follow-up emails.
It’s a peculiar dichotomy: surrounded by friends who are already making waves, securing venture capital, or disrupting markets, while you’re expertly navigating corporate hierarchies or mastering the art of the coffee run. The "Ivy" label came with an unspoken promise of immediate, dazzling success, yet here we are, many of us, in perfectly respectable, stable, but perhaps less-than-startup-glamorous roles. The pressure to constantly achieve, born from years in a high-achieving environment, doesn't just vanish.
It's okay to admit it feels a little strange. It's okay to feel that pang when you see a former classmate's name in a Forbes article while your biggest win of the day was finally clearing your inbox. Your path is your own. The value isn't just in the title or the valuation, but in the learning, the growth, and the unique contributions you bring, wherever you are. This journey is a marathon, not a sprint, and there’s immense power in building foundations, one email at a time.