I graduated from the University of Toronto in June of 2015. I was not planning on going to grad school and I wasn’t planning on getting a job in the field that I studied. To be honest, I wasn’t really planning anything at all. The reality was that post-graduation would be the first time that I did not have a plan. Every year we know what is going to happen next: after grade 2, grade 3; after middle school, high school; after high school, university.

Graduating is scary, and anyone who says otherwise is lying. While some of you know exactly what you are going to do next, there are some of you that think you know, and some of you that have no idea at all. When I was in your shoes a year ago, I had a few ideas of what I would do, but nothing was solidified.

Here is the thing about everyone’s plan: no matter how good your plan is, it will never work out exactly how you wanted it to. All you can do is be as prepared as possible. Believe it or not, the University of Toronto does a pretty good job of that.

The type of degree you receive after university does not necessarily matter (unless you are going to become a doctor, engineer, etc.). What matters is everything you learn while getting that degree. This is where U of T differs from anywhere else.

Going to this university is like jumping into the deep end of giant pool with a bunch of people you don’t know, but none of you know how to swim.

You need to learn to swim before you drown, and there are too many of you for the lifeguard to keep you all afloat. U of T does its best to simulate what post-graduation is like. The resources to succeed are all around you, but no one is going to hold your hand and walk you through it. You have to learn to stand out in a 1000-person class, just like you will need to learn to stand out in a pool of 1000 job applicants.

The University of Toronto taught me how to swim. As difficult and frustrating as it was along the way, as much as we all complain about the U of Tears, we are better for having gone through it. What I noticed when I jumped into the bigger pool post-graduation was that I was already swimming while many of those around me were still learning. This city provides you with endless opportunities to learn, and U of T constantly sets you up for those. Some people were drowning because all they did was study through four years of school while others did no studying at all.

I always say you get 50 per cent of your education in the classroom and the other 50 per cent outside. Today, I am in a position where I am still learning every single day and I am here because U of T gave me the tools to get here. I learned what I could from the classroom and used outside resources to apply them. Just like everyone else, I failed more times than succeeded, but I learned along the way.

Graduating from here makes you valuable. Not because you have a piece of paper saying you graduated from the best university in the country, but because of what that piece of paper says about you as a person, as a member of society, and as a working professional. It says you got a kick-ass education in whatever you studied, but you also know how to make that education useful to someone else. It says you learned how to learn. You can jump into any body of water and learn to swim through it. It says that you do not give up. You do whatever it takes to succeed, but you do it with a social and ethical awareness that this world desperately needs.

This is a lot easier said than done, but try to not look at graduation as something scary. It’s exciting. You have the entire world at your doorstep with endless amounts of opportunities, and you just learned how utilize them.

Ryan Lamers graduated from Innis College in 2015 with an Urban Studies major and a double minor in Human Geography and Cinema Studies. He now works at Insight Global Canada Inc.

Featured image courtesy of Marta Switzer