One of my senior classes today read some advice from the class of 2009 about what it’s like to graduate into a recession. This is personal for me, too — I finished college in the winter of 2010, and my husband graduated from his engineering program in spring 2009. (He also graduated the day after a tornado knocked out power for the entire town, so he showed up to an outdoor graduation after dressing in the dark; completely crazy!)

I asked what questions or advice the graduating class of 2020 would ask for. I definitely had to think about what I might give.

My experience taught me a lot about being patient, being open, and being ready to grab opportunity whenever it knocked. I pieced together part-time jobs throughout college: I was a soccer referee, a university writing tutor, a research assistant, an exam proctor, a substitute teacher, a tutor/confidante for a middle schooler. Most of those came because I kept my ears open for jobs. Any time a professor or a friend asked “Do you know anyone who?…” or I saw a job flier, I leapt for it.

When I earned my teaching certificate, it was December of 2020, and I knew there was very little chance I’d find a full-time teaching job until August. I had been living at home, and was so ready to get my own place!–but if I waited a few months, I might be able to find that place with a full time job under my belt and a few months of cheaper expenses. I stayed in my bright blue childhood bedroom, and I planned to substitute teach until a full-time job came up. An opening in my district for a part-time job teaching GED classes popped up. Even though that wasn’t exactly what I wanted, it was a foot in the door, and I applied for it, and got it.

I LOVED teaching those courses. I love teaching high school, too, but I had no idea how much I would look forward to seeing our small, tight-knit classes and puzzling through algebra together. There was a bakery right next door. That winter and spring, we would meet for a few hours most nights a week and work through English, algebra, science, social studies together, the smell of warm sugar drifting through the air. There were several times I would finish a day of substitute teaching at a K-12 school, drive to the Adult Ed center, and have a cookie as large as my face for dinner.

When I was hired on as a high school teacher in the district seven months later, I continuing teaching those classes for three more months, and still have so many good memories of my time there. If I hadn’t been open to the possibility of doing something a little different for a while, I would never have met so many great people.

The Class of 2020 is likely to need that patience, too: everything is sideways in the world you’re graduating into. Your first plans may not work out the way you hope. It will still turn out okay, so long as you stay patient, and stay open to the opportunities that come your way. Jump on those chances, and they will get you closer to where you want to be.