This piece is for all millennials and young adults who are sailing through this thing called Life. You get to experience challenges and sometimes learn from other people’s life experiences, but one thing remains clear, that as you cruise though this journey, you have moments where you imagine that if you knew better you would have acted better. I have been talking to a number of friends and acquaintances who are in different stages of their lives, some young and single, others young professionals, others just got married, a few got divorced, while others are married with children not kids; please don’t call your children kids this means a baby goat. Anyway, as I was saying, I mingle with all groups of people as I like listening to their perspectives about life. I will pen down common sentiments that I felt were quite interesting and worth sharing in this article. The first is about relationships and especially marriages. Women usually have different expectations when entering into marriage than men. This is a below the belt conversation that couples rarely have when entering the matrimonial bond. So when reality sets a lower standard than the expectations, divorce becomes a high probability. The same applies to all other relationships. The second thing is that many young people underestimate the relevance of mentors in their professional career. They suffer in silence looking for jobs and opportunities and lack a voice in their work places as well. They try to learn the ropes by themselves and sometimes this works to their disadvantage, because they would have learnt and achieved more, if they have identified a mentor at the early stages of their career. This takes us to the third point about the discrimination and bias young people have to face in their day to day work life. The issue of unequal pay or earning pennies compared to the workload given. It is even worse that bosses tell young people to their face that they are young and therefore don’t deserve to earn a lot of money. Should you be aware of this early in life, you tend to make informed rather than emotional decisions. It’s easier than going an extra mile to impress and prove a point at the workplace when you already know the preconceived notion that your boss has and his/her sense of entitlement to your hard work. This takes us to the fourth point about the misconceptions of networking. Have we all heard the saying, your network is your net-worth? Basically it means, the social status of who you know and interact with can/may significantly affect the nature of jobs and opportunities that fall on you. This phrase can be interpreted differently but usually it is implied when encouraging young people to attend expensive events and conferences then dish out business cards. Ideally though, networks are formed after you have forged a working/professional relationship so that as your friends and acquaintances grow they easily remember you and put in a good word for you. On to the fifth point, self-care is very important and it is definitely visible in your outward appearance, whether you think people see it or not. Self care is not all about your weight and diet, even though that forms the heart of it. It extends to the time you make to discover more about your abilities and gifts, as well as the company you keep. Actually it is whatever you invest in yourself that you will take with you wherever you go. Twitter: @christineamira
