Update

On the recommendation of listeners, I bought sun-blocking clothing items from Coolibar, SunShade, and ShinyMod. I feel prepared for summer rays.

Very Special Episode

We asked listeners about their best advice for people graduating from college and otherwise embarking on adulthood.

Job search and career

• know that a job search takes grit and perseverance
• find a position that’s “good enough” to get you started
• know that opportunities take time, and dreams take time 
• at work, lead with “yes, and…” instead of “no, but…”
• ask yourself, in twenty years from now, what will you wish you’d done?
• you know as much as most people

On the subject of the imposter syndrome, I mention an episode of “A Little Happier” where I talk about what a friend said to me, when I told him I was worried about being good enough lawyer to clerk for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. To hear what my friend said, listen here.

Moving and Roommates

• when moving, before you do anything else, make up your bed
• embrace temporary furniture
• don’t split the cost of furniture with roommates
• take advantage of your entire unit
• create a chore wheel
•  scan or copy that diploma before you frame it

Finances

• beware of offers of credit cards
• when it’s clear a company wants to hire you, ask for more money
• try to have your next job lined up before you leave your current job
• save!

Elizabeth mentions a famous scene from the TV show Sex and the City, where Carrie realizes that she has spent $40,000 on expensive shoes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2PpWmwKihE

General

• start planning for your post-secondary plans—further education, military, travel, work, etc.—as soon as you reach high school
• eat a vegetable every day
• travel abroad any chance you get
• remember that you’ll have many opportunities return to your college over the years

I mention a very helpful book: The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now by Meg Jay (Amazon, Bookshop). On the HiHo app, we asked people for their advice for graduates. You can watch the short video here. Thank you Krystal, Matthew, Brad, Gina, Cody, Gregg, Aliza, Coach JP, Chyna, and Amanda for sharing your advice!

We also talk about drift.

Drift is the decision you make by not deciding, or by making a decision that unleashes consequences for which you don’t take responsibility.

Drift feels small, but once unleashed, drift is a powerful, often almost unstoppable, force.

The tricky thing about drift is that people rarely want to admit to themselves that they’re drifting.

So what’s a good way to catch yourself in drift? I put together a free, short quiz, which is available here.

Resources

• To find out if you’re drifting, click here and check out the short, free quiz.
• On episode 328 of Happier, we announced our next book for the Happier Podcast Book Club: Crying in H Mart (Amazon, Bookshop), the brilliant memoir by Michelle Zauner. What are your questions or insights about the book? Share them on social media using #happierpodcastbookclub, and we’ll incorporate them into our interview when Michelle Zauner joins Elizabeth and me to talk about her memoir for episode 334 airing July 14, 2021.

What we’re reading

• Elizabeth: More Than You Can Handle: A Rare Disease, A Family in Crisis, and the Cutting-Edge Medicine That Cured the Incurable by Miguel Sancho (Amazon, Bookshop)
• Gretchen: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (Amazon, Bookshop)