Most of what I write here is about rhythm. Morning routines, the small rituals that hold a day together, the quiet stuff that makes wellness actually sustainable instead of just aspirational.
Today I want to write about something a little different: the real-world skills nobody talks about until you’re standing in the middle of needing them.
If you’ve been around here a while, you probably know I run a wellness business. What you might not know is that a big part of what I do these days is mentor a team of people building their own version of that business too. Coaches. Entrepreneurs. People figuring out their own rhythm, just on a different kind of project than the ones I usually write about here.
I don’t talk about that side of things very often. But Audrey’s graduation this spring has had me thinking about it more than usual lately.
Ten Days
She’d done an internship the summer before her senior year, the kind of thing that’s supposed to be the safe bet. The thing that’s supposed to mean you’re set.
But she didn’t know if it would turn into a job until about ten days before graduation.
Ten days. After the Summer internship. After everything she’d already done right. That’s how long the uncertainty lasted, for an entire semester.
I’ll let that sit for a second, because it still gets me a little. An internship isn’t a guarantee. Even when you do the thing you’re “supposed” to do, the not-knowing can follow you almost to the very end.
What Actually Got Her Through It
What got Audrey through that stretch wasn’t the internship by itself. It was the stuff she’d been building for years before that, without really calling it anything. Talking to people. Following through when she said she would. Figuring out what she was actually good at, not just what she thought she should be good at.
The Conversation I Keep Having
A few weeks ago I was getting fitted for hiking shoes and ended up in a conversation with the guy helping me. A college student, a few months from graduating, who’d recently left a sales job for something steadier and was trying to figure out what to put on his resume. He wanted an internship. Something with a title on it. Something that would “count.”
But he’d just spent months learning to sell, adjust when something wasn’t working, and start over in a completely different kind of job. That’s real experience. He just didn’t see it that way.
I’ve had a version of this conversation with more young people than I can count this year. Almost all of them say some version of the same thing. They need experience. But every opportunity that promises experience seems to require experience first. It’s the kind of catch-22 that sounds almost funny until you’re the one living inside it.
What Actually Counts As Experience
Here’s what I keep coming back to. The experience that actually prepares you for what’s next doesn’t always come with a title or a logo. Sales. Talking to people you’ve never met. Following through when no one’s checking. Adjusting when the plan falls apart. Those are real skills. Just not the kind that show up on a transcript.
Communication. The confidence to ask for what you’re worth. Knowing how to manage your own time when nobody’s structuring the day for you. Nobody grades you on any of this. But it’s what actually carries you into whatever comes next, whether that’s a job, a business, or something you haven’t figured out the name for yet.
Honestly, I think that’s part of why I ended up doing what I do. Mentoring isn’t just about products or a paycheck. A lot of it is helping people, of all ages, build exactly these kinds of skills. Watching someone go from “I don’t know what I’m doing” to “I actually know how to do this” is most of the job, if I’m being honest about it.
If This Sounds Like Where You Are
I’ve been working on something that puts language to all of this. A short video series for anyone feeling that gap right now, whether that’s a college student a few months from graduation, or someone further along asking the same question in a different way. It’s not a pitch. Just some of what I’ve learned from being on both sides of this, watching someone go through this exact stretch, and mentoring people building something of their own.
If it’s useful, it’s here: Accelerator Video Series
And if you know someone standing right at this edge, maybe pass it along. Sometimes the most useful thing is just realizing someone’s already thought about the exact thing you’re stuck on.
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