Growing Up Sucks! Podcast

Everyone gets anxious when it's time to graduate and find a job. Luckily, we have Kelsey Thompson on the podcast to help Heather in her job search. Listen in as we cover the top five things you can do to get employed in your field.

What are the top five pieces of advice you'd give a brand new college student? Heather shares her answers. I think they are definitely good ones. But I wouldn't have thought to start with one that so clearly hits your wallet.

How do you get over losing your best friend? What happens when, a long time later, one of you reaches out? Can we reframe what happened in the past? Also, are we really making the right attributions when we speculate on the causes of our friends' actions? And what should we do when we speak up and our friend doesn't react well? Finally, what should we do going forward?

Heather worked for two years and then went to college. It taught her to budget her money carefully and to only spend money that she actually had in her pocket. Importantly, no credit cards. She's now ready to learn the next stages of budgeting and building wealth. Listen in as we have a wide-ranging conversation from buying a house to insurance, from the true cost of college to living wills, etc...

Some people take on too much. And they only notice it when things have already gotten too stressful or deadlines are missed. We discuss noticing your own behavior and watching how you react to things. These are great indicators of how you are doing. But at the core of the problem might be "Why are you always trying to prove yourself?" Can you accept that you are already good enough? You don't need to prove yourself forever. And can you quit an activity when it is the right thing to do?

Emily is giving herself to her students before, during, and after class. And she's studying for her Master's. Hopefully a Ph.D. someday, so she can help even more. But her struggles are real and sometimes painful. Among her many medical issues, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome creates perhaps the greatest challenge. Listen in as she educates all of us about how powerful a person can be.

Katie graduated college right at the start of the pandemic. Recent college graduates ARE making it in the real world. She used college to figure out where her boundaries were for adding things to her plate and she worked on her confidence. Now, she's in charge of her life and ready to succeed. Included in her advice is learn from other students, get some leadership experience, compartmentalize some of your problems, and keep active outside the classroom. And, if anyone needs to hire someone like her, she says she's a "wonderful number two." She'll explain.

Kyle is worried about his future. Frankly, he's worried about his whole generation's future. Partly because his own future is up in the air. He's changed major. He doesn't know what he wants to do when he graduates. He's worried about his school debt load. I talk to him about a bunch of things. How to become a millionaire. How to not worry about the uncontrollables. The value of mentors and networking. And in the end, he commits to do three things.

It can be a very scary situation for many young people - to share with their parents that they are gay, bisexual or transgender. One brave woman shares her story. But her story is not typical. Her father, though heterosexual, was very open and accepting of her announcement. But she was still very nervous about telling him.  Unfortunately, many young adults get a negative reaction from one or both of their parents. We discuss some tips on how to handle this situation and express our hope that the world will continue to become ever more accepting.

Seth is a recent college grad who has a full-time job but has also started his own media property called In-Between Media. Now it has a staff, thousands of hits, and lots of content (though it still does a great job with fantasy football). Despite some serious struggles growing up, Seth ended up being chief editor of his college's newspaper and is now very happy with where he's at in his life and his career. He offers great advice for young adults, particularly about getting the "real" value from college.

Stone comes from a family of athletes and now plays Div. II football. He's discovered time management is a huge issue for college athletes, particularly if they want to go to med school like he does. But he's also learned how hard it is to be so far from home and how you can't stress about the "uncontrollables". We cover a wide range of issues so tune in to hear this 20-year-old tell us his story.

Tristan wants to move out in a few weeks when he graduates college, but he thinks is parents are not on board with his plan. We discuss a variety of issues, including how he's going to pay his own way. We end up with a strategy for a series of conversations he can have back home.

Some people think college athletes have it easy. In reality, it's quite the opposite. They have it harder. Much more of their time is taken up with practice and games, so they need a tremendous amount of self-discipline and time management skills to succeed in their courses. They also have to make friends and find a social life, sometimes very far from home. Sara is a successful swimmer on her way to a graduate medical program. We talk about what she's learned in her college career.

Michelle discovered her "passive" form of communication didn't work for her when she was younger. So she gradually worked on it and now believes she can, most of the time, be assertive. We talk about what that means and I have her take a brief quiz about assertiveness Then I discuss some rules of assertiveness. In truth, every young adult can improve their relationships by learning to be better communicators, assertive but not aggressive or passive.

We've all had arguments with our significant other or close friends. Do we do them well? I discuss this very important topic with Megan and we explore 4 different communication styles and how they impact these tough conversations.

There isn't just one way to study in college. You should study differently for different types of courses: hard sciences, soft sciences, and humanities. Brooke and I go into some detail and then we discuss the "teach-back" method of studying. But metacognition is the most important skill she needs to succeed in college.

Is it possible to be someone in their late teens or early twenties and not drink? Yup, but peer pressure is a real thing. Fortunately, things get better over time. Join Heather and I in an honest conversation about not drinking or doing drugs in this day and age.

Leadership. Pandemic. Getting involved. Mentoring. Career development. Networking. I discuss it all with Alex, twice elected Student Government Association president at a mid-sized western Pennsylvania university. Great advice for college students!

Dating apps. Long-distance relationships. Fighting but staying together. We cover it all on this podcast with my guests Heather and Steve. It's certainly been harder to find someone and to stay with someone during the pandemic, but it's not impossible. We explore a wide variety of topics in this special Valentine's Day podcast.

Depression is a very serious topic for young adults, especially during this time of global pandemic. Cassidy and I have both experienced depression and talk at length about our differing experiences. We offer hope to everyone out there, because, we both agree, we're doing just fine.

Every young adult is going to find their breaking point sometime. I found mine at age 22 and a senior in college. I talk about it with Michelle and then we look at "wellbeing". What areas of our life do we need to focus on and balance if we're going to thrive!  If you listen closely you might hear me make a brief Buddhism reference.

When you go from pre-teen to young adult you have to change your relationship with your parents. Cassidy has navigated this and has a few stories to share. I talk about how different every child and parent-child relationship is, and we start to agree at the end that a lot of the responsibility falls on the child.

Megan has experienced the good and the bad of college friendships. So have I as a matter of fact. In this episode, we talk about how to find friends, how to start and grow friendships, and how to end the ones that are toxic. Many young adults only know the "friendship stories" of their acquaintances and maybe their parents. There are thousands of different friendship stories, if not millions. It's a lifelong quest to navigate friendships. Let us help. (College - this is one of our "College-specific" episodes, though anyone can learn from our discussion.)

I know as a 50+ something that I'm going to have to adapt to the fact that many people use THC, the chemical in marijuana that gets a person high. Many states have legalized it, and I predict the rest will follow. So how can my generation, probably your parents' age, and the younger generation have a reasonable dialogue about this? I give it a try with Steve. Though he doesn't smoke, he explains to me how common it is and I try to explain that I'm slowly adjusting. This isn't the first conversation I'll have with young adults about marijuana, but it gets the dialogue started.

In this weeks' podcast, Brooke is deciding whether to get a credit card in her name. She's nervous for several really good reasons, but in the end, I think I convince her that it is a good idea - with some advice. We discuss what kind of card and how she should manage it if she gets one.  

Michelle tells me about a workplace relationship that didn't go very well. Turns out someone was stabbing her in the back, but being nice to her face. I talk this out with her and then we get into just a few of the ways workplace relationships are different, and how to handle them. I introduce the two kinds of work orientations that researchers have known about for decades: a task-orientation versus a relationship orientation. We talk about the implications of this. And then I talk about how our theories about our co-workers are often very wrong. And how we can help ourselves get along better at work.

Megan recalls how she used to suffer a great deal from FOMO in high school. She still feels it sometimes in college. I help her process those feelings and we discuss strategies for avoiding FOMO as much as possible. Then we discuss the wonderful power of a gratitude journal.

Steve saw some serious gambling by his friends in high school. Now he sees it all over in college. Unfortunately, not everyone can stop when they start to lose. We talk this out and I eventually start talking about the smartest “gamble” in America if you want to become wealthy. It's called investing long-term in the equities markets.

Cassidy is dealing with a death in her family for the first time since she “grew up”. We talk about how to handle this and the wonderful impact this person had on her life. Then we discuss how this person influenced Cassidy's career choice and we get into some advice about choosing a career.