the 9 things every graduate should know

by Brianna Wiest

 From Brianna Wiest — internationally bestselling author of The Mountain Is You, 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think, The Pivot Year, and more. Her books have sold over 1 million copies worldwide, appear regularly on international bestseller lists, and are translated into more than 40 languages. In May 2024, Brianna Wiest returned to Elizabethtown College to deliver the commencement address to its graduating class. "The 9 Things Every Graduate Should Know" is that speech, transcribed and designed as a book: nine lessons she wishes she had known at the moment of her own beginning, written to an audience of one

— the version of herself standing on exactly that threshold.

A few of these lesson:

 1. Don't reject yourself first. The world will have plenty of chances to reject you. Don't give it a head start by never entering the arena. Victories, Wiest argues, become inevitabilities — but only for those who keep going.

 2. Do not stop believing you can create a life you love, even after chapters you didn't like. The past holds no bearing against your presence. Every day you have the chance to change your life.

3. The losses and lows of your life are your most significant opportunities for self-investment. What looks like isolation is actually, temporarily, freedom — a release from unconscious limitation. Never waste a crisis.

4. You must live in a way that other people won't, if you are to live in a way that other people can't. You become what you repeatedly do. What is celebrated in public was perfected in private.

 This is a short, beautifully designed book — transcribed speech, typographically presented, the kind of object that reads in a single sitting and stays with you for years. It makes an ideal gift for anyone graduating, transitioning, or standing at any threshold and asking what comes next.

 Perfect for: -Graduates of high school, college, or any program

 — the primary audience, directly addressed

-Anyone in transition: career change, relationship change, starting over, starting fresh -Readers of Wiest's longer works (The Mountain Is You, The Pivot Year, 101 Essays) who want her most direct, personal, and concentrated voice -Gift buyers looking for something more substantive than a card, more personal than a generic inspirational book, and specifically calibrated to the moment of a graduation