Children are a gift from God, from the moment they are born, to their first significant life moments like their first baby step or their first word, those are all delightful times for their parents. The parents take it upon themselves to guide and steer their kids towards the right paths as they grow and usually the first educational step they take  is enrolling the kids into schools as soon as they’re old enough. Henceforth that first milestone, it is always a parent’s pride and joy to see their ward grow and advance up the educational ladder. A parent would gladly sacrifice a lot just so their kids lack nothing and would do so with joy knowing in the years to come, their reward would come when the children are out of school and  could fend for themselves and their parents as well.

And for us the children, from the moment we graduate from High school or secondary school as the case maybe, we look forward to being admitted into college, graduating from the university with a degree and basically starting our lives independently. Once, admitted into the university there is sort of a countdown on both sides : the parents and the child. They all both envision the world becoming better after graduation. The parents dream of finally relaxing and reaping the fruits of all that sacrifice and the child dreams of rewarding everyone who’s been there through the journey.

And alas! , it’s graduation day, the daughter/ son is a graduate and ready to go into the world. She/he is ready to take the reins from the parent’s and whilst, this is basically how it should be it sadly isn’t in most average cases!

For the child, the string of finances stops coming in from the family or the former sponsors. In return, they start expecting help from you instead. In some lucky cases, the child gets a well paying job and lives up to expectations but in other cases, it’s hard cause then you realize eventually what no one told you that would have better prepared you. Here they are:

• Be prepared to go broke:

The transition from full on dependency to independency is not an easy one. In most cases, it will be tough cause you’ll be going from the care and reliable finances you had coming in, to fending for yourself. Just before, it becomes stable and better through hardwork, just be prepared to go low  on finances.

• Get a skill

Not everyone is lucky enough to actually make a living from their college degrees. A skill in  programming, management, business or whatever sector you find interesting would go a long way in the transition.

• Be prepared to be your own cheerleader

This is really important, the world is a tough place and only the best and tough people can survive in it. In as much as your family loves you, there will still be expectations from them and no one will really understand what you are going through. So, on the bad days, the times when it seems you can’t handle it anymore, you have to be able to brace up and cheer yourself on.

• Be ready to take risks and try new ventures

There is really no script to life, so be ready to try new ventures not even related to your course of study. It always helps to look within you and figure  out what other skills you have, embark on them and you might just have that smooth transition you desire

All  in all, it’s never easy transitioning but just like every other change, it’s a constant and one we must learn to adopt, no just in going from dependency to independency but also in other spheres of life. Goodluck!

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