To the new graduates (both high school and college): the world will never stop moving; but just because it does, doesn’t mean you have to do the same. You’re probably already weighing your options and making decisions on how to keep moving forward–but remember that you’re still human. It’s okay to slow things down every once in a while and try to figure out where your life is headed.
The road you are on is the road you will need to take to your most ideal self, and note that it’s not a straight path. There are stops and corners, and even detours and complete u-turns; but when you look back on it, you’ll realize that they have served its purpose to lead you to where you need to be.
Zara Carbonell’s Lost You, Found Me is the perfect example of those. She writes about navigating through her life: relationships, purpose, goals, and dreams. The book speaks volumes for graduates trying to find their way outside the four walls of the classroom, and here are three lessons they will learn when reading.
1. Some dreams aren’t meant for you to chase after.
“It felt like a whole lifetime ago—when I felt I knew where my life was headed. I had a plan for every year and the following years in increments. Now, those plans are dead to me. It felt like I was experiencing a complete rebirth. Everything I worked for no longer made sense to me. Everything I sacrificed and compromised for no longer resonated with who I had become today.”
It’s when all the hard work you put into trying to achieve your dream starts to feel like it’s getting you nowhere. The longer you dwell on it, the more you realize that it’s just not for you. It’s a sad reality that all of us will face at some point in our lives.
What do you do from there? Zara Carbonell tells us to rework the map we have made for ourselves–no matter how long it will take. She talks of rebirth, taking a different route, and then driving into the unknown. Who knows what the world has in store for you?
2. Everything you do in life will come with risks.
It’s a given that the world we live in is nothing short of risks; but for some reason, these risks become bigger when we have more freedom (in short, the older we grow). Zara names four of these in the book, and then continues to explain and describe them.
“There were physical risks, or how willing I was to risk getting physically hurt; financial risks, or how willing I was to lose money as a consequence; social risks, or how willing I was to put myself out there and get turned down by other people; and intellectual risks, or how willing I was to get my mind changed by other ideals.”
It’s okay to be discouraged, but don’t let these risks hinder you from actually moving forward. There are still things to learn from taking those risks–may it be guidance, relationship, wealth, values, or other things. Who knows, it might lead you to the one place you’re supposed to be.
3. The universe has a fascinating way of giving us things we need (even if we don’t know it yet).
“What’s mine will find me” is a powerful quote from Lost You, Found Me. Zara says this to herself, during Miss Tourism Worldwide 2018, as a reminder that what is meant for her will happen–and we all know how that ended in her favor.
The universe keeps us from things we aren’t meant for, and brings us places we don’t expect to be in. If it’s meant to be, the universe will pull out all the stops to make sure it happens even if that means having to struggle for a while. Life, as we know it, is neither just an up nor a down, but both. And if it means that we’ll have to experience those just to get to the good part, then so be it.
“And while these years have truly painted the best years of my life, I did not come out unscathed. I had to roll, fall, and skid along the way because there were things the world needed me to learn—and learn the hard way.”
Lost You, Found Me shows us that life will continue to “reveal different hues of ourselves in every circumstance we choose to trek through.” Everything we do has a learning curve.
It’s okay to feel scared, anxious, and unsure of where your life will be heading; but remember that once you graduate (whether from high school or college), you’re faced with a new beginning. You’re being catapulted into something new and exciting; so don’t be too sad that things are ending.
To picture the way Zara Carbonell sees this beginning, she talks about the sunrises she saw during her trips, and how they’re filled with magic and soul. “They represent the new beginnings paved by an ending. Every time I watch the sunrise, I feel as if a part of me rises with it. A part of my sorrow is lifted to the heavens and I am brought back to my center—earth.
by Rhea Jane Pulgado