[1]Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress

Are you
graduating this month? Or perhaps you know someone who is?

A few days ago, a supporter asked Alexandria if she had also felt lost and
scared when she graduated from college. Check out her response below:

[1]Yes! Be kind to yourself during this time! This photo is of me,
bartending at 28, just a few months before I would find myself elected to
Congress. I had no idea what was about to happen to me. I was very scared
graduating college! I felt “behind” and like a failure for a long time. My
biggest piece of advice is to be gentle with yourself. Take risks, fail,
get up, try again. There is so much pressure to be “successful” (whatever
that means) right out of school, but I find that can be a trap or a curse
of its own. Bartending was really hard, I beat myself up a lot over this
idea of “not living to my potential.” I lost some friends who wanted to be
around more “successful” people, but looking back I also feel like it was
the best thing to happen to me. It was a very grounding time where I feel
like I really developed myself, maintained and made the realest
friendships I have, and tried to do lots of new and different things. I
spent a lot of that time wishing I was “doing better” and scared I would
“never amount to anything” (hi, eldest daughter checking in!!) or have any
stability to my life. But looking back I wouldn’t change it at all. I
would just have been more patient and kind to myself.

In our capitalist society, it can be so hard to separate our sense of
self-worth from the job that we do or what we produce. But, we must be
gentle with ourselves and look at our career path as just one piece of our
development as a whole, complex person.

Please be gentle with yourself 💕,

Team AOC

 

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