(Young) Kel,

Hey, man. This is ‘old’ Kel. I say ‘old’ because I don’t think I’m that old, but I know what you considered old. Yeah… I’m a bit older than that…

I wanted to write to you to share a little bit of encouragement. I know you’re trying to juggle exams right now. There’s a few that you’re not concerned about, and there’s a few exams where you’re starting to think about the Doomsday scenario. You know what I’m talking about… flunking out, going home, and finding something else to do. It definitely makes the exam season feel even heavier.

Spoiler alert; that doesn’t happen. You work hard. You nail some of them. Sometimes, the ones you nail are the ones you think you were going to scrape by. Sometimes it’s vice versa. Professors throw curve balls from time to time (you’ll end up becoming colleagues and friends with a bunch of them).

Here’s the big question you’re asking yourself right now; is this all actually worth it? It was, but not for the reasons you thought it would be. You learned a lot of skills you thought you would need every day, and you’ve rarely used them. A couple things professors stressed as key—things you once laughed about—ended up being the things that brought you the most opportunity. Professors didn’t always have it right (times change), but they were right more often than not. Good on you for listening to the message and having the foresight to apply it through your college experience and in your career.

Speaking of careers… yours ends up solid. You build a ton of really interesting things You remember looking in the mirror and telling yourself you’re going to build a business? It happens a few times, and sometimes the businesses actually made some money. The biggest thing is that you never gave up the curiosity and the willingness to take on the bigger ideas between the 25 or so years between those exams and “old” Kel time. All of those successes (and a few failures) came together to give you the career and life you have today. I can tell you from experience that you can’t imagine a better one.

So, go forth and crush it this week. Make it a part of your story.

See you when you get here,

‘Old’ Kel