The note I keep rewriting for my sister

My little sister graduates this Saturday and I have been drafting the same note for her for two weeks, throwing out version after version because each one sounded like advice I would have rolled my eyes at when I was twenty-one. What I wanted someone to tell me back then is that the first job is not the one, nobody around me had it figured out either even the ones with polished LinkedIn posts, and the salary I felt embarrassed about was actually fine. I really thought my career would be a clean line. It was not. What I am actually putting into her note is that the first two years are mostly about finding out which kind of tired you can live with. Some get tired from the commute, and I learned I get tired from pretending. (The rice cooker is beeping at me right now and I should probably go.) But what I most want her to know is that the people who love her at twenty-one keep showing up at twenty-five, and that is the only thing I have figured out for sure. #graduation2026 #graduationseason #oldersister #lifelessons