Just Start Doing

And everything else will work itself out.

Song of the Day

Intentional by Travis Greene

My long-distance best friends and I send each other life update videos every Wednesday to keep in contact. In last week’s round of videos, one of my best friends told us how drained she was from university and all the responsibilities she had to carry. As someone who has had a similar experience and is now a graduate, I gave some uplifting advice to keep pushing, but I also told her that graduating college and leaving the academic world behind in general is like getting out of a toxic relationship.

It is freeing, and at first, you are hopeful until you realize that you are in uncharted waters and there is no longer a map to guide you. There are no longer any semesters to plan your life around, or any assignments to complete that let you know that you are moving forward. And perhaps for the first time in your life, it seems like everything and everyone is silent.

As an academic warrior who is out of her domain, my post-grad experience thus far has been extremely isolating and heavy. For the first time in my life, I am actually free to fail without my shortcomings, neglecting my GPA. I am free to be as creative as I desire without being graded. A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have seen it this way. In fact, it was my best friend A’Danya who reminded me that I had the privilege of choice when I was deep in a spiral of overthinking.

Perhaps the hardest thing about post-grad life is the untrue belief that, as graduates, we must have everything figured out because we must now commit to the degree we spent 4 years earning. And that committing to this one title means giving up everything else that we aspire to be; if we don’t conform, we will fail. But what if I wasn’t made to be just one thing? I aspire to be a writer, a poet, an entrepreneur, and a mother. I aspire to lead and help people. How can I exist as only one thing if the desires of my heart are many?

For the majority of 2024, it was difficult to define myself, and like Esther Greenwood in Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar,” I was slowly spiraling into chaos until I realized that I needed to unlearn this destructive belief and just start doing. I needed to free myself from decision paralysis and be open to failing. So I did.

2025 has so far been my year of doing without overthinking. I am aiming for contentment over perfection, and this has given me more purpose than I have previously had. So, if you are like me and you are scared to do the wrong thing, I encourage you to just do something. Start somewhere because as long as you are doing something, you are moving forward, and by the time you look up, you will be miles ahead of where you began.

Peace!