How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work

by Jodi Kantor

Jodi Kantor’s groundbreaking reporting has toppled media magnates and sparked justice in the workplace worldwide. But before all of this, Kantor was kicked off her college newspaper. Society expects perfection, but Kantor knows those first professional steps are often rocky. She also knows that today’s graduates are facing a new and frightening playing field.   In a post-pandemic world rife with political upheaval, the unknowns of AI, and the general uncertainty of coming-of-age, Kantor casts aside platitudes and false hope to offer something tangible. There is a difference between realism and cynicism, she says. Work is how we spend much of our time. It’s our engine of how vaccines are made, political campaigns won, television crafted for our pleasure. Instead of letting cynicism win, Kantor rolls up her sleeves and identifies three principles to help young people discover their life’s craft, need, and money. Powerful and provocative, How to Start is a statement of faith for young people to keep in their back pocket as they make their way through uncertain times. To face the challenges ahead, Kantor offers inspired wisdom, strategy, and a set of aspirations to launch their careers and last their whole lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Audiobook, Education, Essays, Personal Development, Personal Growth

112 pages, Hardcover

First published April 21, 2026

About the author

Jodi Kantor has covered the world of Barack and Michelle Obama since the beginning of 2007, also writing about Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Richard Holbrooke, Eric Holder and many others along the way.

Ms. Kantor graduated from Columbia and attended Harvard Law School. But soon after she arrived, she caught the journalism bug, took time off to work at Slate.com, and never looked back. She joined The New York Times in 2003 as Arts & Leisure editor, revamping the section and helping lead a makeover of the culture report.

The recipient of a Columbia Young Alumni Achievement Award, Ms. Kantor has also been named by Crain's New York Business magazine as one of "40 Under 40." She appears regularly on television, including The Today Show and Charlie Rose.

Though she is a Washington correspondent, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

Reviews

[Tab · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am the exact target audience for this book (about to graduate, struggling to find my purpose, and generally feeling hopeless at the state of the world and the job market) and unfortunately I found it to be pretty unhelpful

I really respect Jodi and the journalistic work she’s done but I kept looking for specificity or tangible advice in this book and didn’t get much

The book has this central idea of following craft and need but does little in the way of guiding people who don’t know their ‘higher purpose’

I know there’s no magic answer to the huge problems in the job market but I wish there was something a little less nebulous to learn

[Cameron Lipp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Word for word what your friend’s mom who went to Yale says to you after one glass of wine at dinner

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jodi Kantor is an American investigative journalist perhaps best known for breaking the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the New York Times alongside her colleague Meghan Twohey (see their book She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement). Kantor's 2026 short book How to Start isn't investigative journalism but rather Kantor's career advice to young people entering the workforce today, inspired by several commencement speeches she was asked to give at her undergraduate alma mater Columbia University and various other venues (and probably Kantor's own fears as her own college-aged kids are preparing to enter the workforce). I think Kantor writes with good intention here, though she's mostly advising young people to follow her career pattern or those similar to hers where passion was sparked and cultivated early, chosen despite difficulty and potential social stigma (for Kantor, this involved dropping out of Harvard Law to pursue reporting instead), and persevered upon until it became profitable.

I get a bit frustrated with this book genre because it often assumes that young people today have it harder than young people a decade ago or a century ago, and therefore they must be prevailed upon by folks older and wiser (who are not in young people's exact shoes) to correct their paths. This is both true and false. I personally love hearing career stories of people both inside and outside my field, but not because I'm looking for an exact copy-paste template for my own path. Instead, I find these valuable for the life lessons that resulted - the jobs that looked amazing on paper but didn't work out, the quiet intuition listened to (or not) that resulted in satisfaction (or grief). Kantor's story is full of those moments, which was my favorite thing about the book. But from the standpoint of a new college grad, I can see how this book would come across as preachy and therefore not helpful.

Further reading: other career memoirs/advice books I've found helpful:
Unapologetically Ambitious: Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms by Shellye Archambeau
Strategize to Win: The New Way to Start Out, Step Up, or Start Over in Your Career by Carla Harris
Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career by Kristi Coulter

My statistics:
Book 113 for 2026
Book 2419 cumulatively

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In "How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work," accomplished journalist Jodi Kantor offers advice to new college graduates. Kantor endeavors to be simultaneously hopeful and realistic, and she mostly pulls it off. I work in public higher education and I'm a parent of two college students. This crop of graduates is facing a number of big challenges all at once, and I think Kantor delivers a few worthwhile messages, especially about focusing on your craft and thinking about what brings you satisfaction, not just where you can earn the biggest paycheck. This is a slim book that's easy to read, and I think it will hold up for the next year or two as a nice college graduation gift.

[Bookbubble · Rating 2 out of 5]

How to Start delivers what it promises: a statement of faith. It is mostly philosophy, not a practical guide on how to find work as a college grad. The title is mostly metaphorical. You start by thinking about your career. I would not recommend this for college grads trying to figure out where to go from here. It's better if your college grad doesn't know where to start with a career in terms of "what do I want to do." It's not very helpful to find a job, but it may give you ideas on non-traditional jobs you might, possibly be able to get one day if a boomer dies and leaves the position open.

The single most important thing she thinks workers should do is learn communication and listening skills and network to find work. That it's more impactful than submitting 500 online job ads. In addition, get out of the house. Don't work remotely so you can collect skills and contacts from other coworkers. That's very 1970s advice coming from someone who's trying to help people see how they work the best and in some cases that's at home away from other people. I'm neurospicy and I absolutely hate working around other people. Did I take jobs because they sounded interesting and paid poorly? Yes. Did I learn what I didn't want to do? Yes. But I didn't have a choice because at the time working from home was not an option for anyone.

The short of it is that she's basically saying you find your life's work in something you can do (skill) and where someone else has a need and can pay for a solution. That's literally how any business starts.

Her advice is almost entirely focused on working for someone else. She doesn't apply her philosophy to people who want to start their own business or work in the trades.

She's coming from the journalism industry that she got into before its entire collapse under the internet. She still made a career in it because she's tenacious and a go getter. When you're already feeling lousy about your options, it's hard to stay optimistic. That's why she wrote the book. But there's not much practical advice in it.

Young adults just starting their careers in this dystopian environment are justifiably pessimistic because the numbers and reality back it up. This book can help you focus your work interests, and if you haven't decided yet, ideas to broaden them, such as taking random jobs that allow you to try different things.

I think this book is helpful if you need a "pick me up" to keep looking for work, rather than a "how to find a job in this nightmare market." She loads up the book with examples from people she's interviewed, but its best service is to illustrate how someone with a passion for dance and may never make a living at it could be the executive director of a performing arts program. The problem that she glazes over is that many of these high paying jobs she points out are few and far between so shooting your shot has to be aggressive and networking heavy.

[Jamie Gabel · Rating 2 out of 5]

My aunt got this for me and I made it my rainy day activity. Not so much tangible career advice. I guess I should find a needed career😄I guess I should choose a career not for the money😄

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

As an accomplished investigative journalist, the author brings a strong voice and perspective to her work. However, the career guidance here feels less grounded in a broad range of lived experiences and more aspirational than practical for many readers.
The core advice—“find your craft,” specialize early, and build around it—sounds compelling, but it feels more aspirational than grounded in the reality of how many careers actually unfold.
What if there isn’t one perfect plan? What if the real goal is simply finding something sustainable?
Many careers nowadays are shaped by industry shifts, layoffs, and evolving roles, not a clean, linear path toward specialization. The framework doesn’t offer much practical guidance. It seems largely based on a narrow set of trajectories rather than a broad, representative range of outcomes.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book incredibly relevant. The reasons she discusses why people are discouraged by their career prospects are the VERY same and SPECIFIC things that I have seen recently in the workplace. Despite the sense of hopelessness about career prospects she does bring in the light. She does this by telling her and a few other peoples career stories that are not straight lines to success. I really enjoyed the way she wrote these, it wasn’t throw away examples, it was peoples stories that I really connected with. She then outlines how you should approach discovering your craft and what need it can solve.

It is marketed to new graduates but I would argue it’s for anyone who is job searching, thinking about switching a career, or a stay at home mom who will be re-entering the workforce. I appreciated that it is shorter. What she does write packs a punch and is not drawn out. I highlighted so many quotes to go back to.

Thank you Little, Brown and Company for the ARC.

[Karo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book inspires young people by giving examples of how to take both small and bigger steps towards entering the workforce and how to wrap one’s head around the whole career topic. I consider those smaller ideas and also the emphasis on listening to your inner instincts very useful. It’s nice to read a perspective that goes beyond the usual "just become a doctor, lawyer or work in IT."

But to be completely honest, I found the book more inspiring and comforting than eye-opening. I don’t think I took away anything particularly new from it. I liked that the author didn’t unnaturally prolong the topic or keep repeating herself, as many books of this kind do. It’s short and to the point.

What I appreciated the most is that the author encourages young readers to simply try and trusts that, eventually, they will figure out what to do. She also reminds us that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
3.5/5

[Ryan Elsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in a couple days after graduation, how timely! To me the message was more uplifting than practical but also expanded further on advice we’ve all heard before. I appreciated the author’s anecdotes though times have also changed 🫪 regardless, I plan to come back to this in the future! Thanks Mom for the book.

[gwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I attended Jodi's speaking event at the library last week, and her warmth shines through her writing as it did on stage. Unfortunately, this book felt braggy and most of the examples of success felt like exceptions rather than the norm. But, I am a cynic by nature. Her main thesis is that at the intersection of craft and need we can develop our life's work. She suggests that we can learn our craft by noticing what roles we fill in our social lives. I thought this was interesting, so if anyone has any ideas of what role I fill in your life as a friend drop it in the comments. My search for self help from a book continues.

[Sasha Hurowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jodi Kantor really is that girl

[Jules · Rating 1 out of 5]

A longer version of the commencement speech she gave at a university, the book leans into platitudes around 'if you turn every experience into a learning opportunity, everything will come together and things will work out. So don't worry if it's bleak right now.'

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is super random but it did bring tears to my eyes

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

capitalist slop imo

[Liv Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

More philosophical than practical, this book contains stories of how Jodi’s friends found their purpose, work wise, but gives only a few points of advice for readers. Interesting nonetheless.

[Jake Dann]

I've been feeling anxious about my career, on some level, since 2024. I think this little book helped me feel like that's ok - it's important to do what you think is important, or at least try. I still feel very lost sometimes, and I don't think any number of books like this will solve that, but I liked how sympathetic this one was, and its ideas for finding one's own way.

[Julia Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet and reassuring. Not full of steps, which I honestly appreciated, but ideas and belief in this generation. And empathy. Thanks Jodi!

[Zayda Slabbekoorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful! Recommend for anyone flailing around in their early career.

[Vanni Le · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t think I actually learned how to start…

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice guide for college students or young adults trying to get into the job market, as volatile and ever-changing as it is.

[Lucy Marques · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the writing and it was inspirational but not in a practical way at all

[Mikayla Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this more than I thought, thanks Nanny! Was helpful in my current career crisis.

[Hana Wali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated her perspective and the feelings of excitement instead of dread it gave me, but I wish she had more concrete tips or suggestions

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who couldn’t use a good pep talk and some practical ideas for finding your path in the world? A quick, engaging and thought-provoking read.

[Billy Marino · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a gift from my grandma as I go into my final year of a lengthy PhD. I'm not quite the target demographic, which I think is more graduating undergrads, but I still understand the sentiment. I'm grateful I have a supportive grandmother who has enabled me to continue down this path of education for so long, honing my craft, so to speak. The book itself is of a genre of inspirational, self-help adjacent type of writing that isn't something I really get into typically, but I was curious to give it a read since I've seen it marketed and it was a loving gift.

I think there's maybe one piece of practical advice in here, and otherwise it's mostly vaguely inspirational anecdotes about overcoming anxieties and fears to pursue the work you love. While I appreciate the attempt to inspire folks who are freshly graduating into a rough economy, society, politics, and culture, I think it more often felt like it misses the mark a bit.

First, the good, though. The practical advice comes a little after halfway through, on page 60. She highlights a method of getting to know oneself better via a daily journaling technique focused on thinking about things that you enjoyed and didn't throughout the day. This is meant to help get a sense of what you like and don't like, and how that might translate to your work. I think this could be a very useful approach, and not just for work, but for generally getting to know your own preferences. She mentions a similar journaling technique later as well. I also appreciated her point about not being so worried about accolades and perfection in college, but focusing more on building relationships. I think the reason I like this is because it is true regardless of the society you live in. We're all people trying to make it through life, and so connecting with each other is always the best path.

Outside of that, the text seems to be largely anecdotal examples of herself, her friends, and a handful of interviews with recent grads that mostly attempt to say, "I know things are more challenging now, but still, we should strive to do the work we love." This is great in theory, and it's a message that I think flitted around when I was a kid. In between the advice to pursue a law degree, of course, which I think most millennials heard frequently. In some cases following your dreams can work, but it falls very flat for me given the times we're living in.

I understand her drive to try to inject some optimism into what feels like a culture of cynicism these days. However, and this is more of a personal view, I think maybe this is a tired method. It felt a bit like the attitude of Democrats for the last 3 decades, just sort of suffering the pain of a broken system while smiling and saying things will get better, instead of trusting that the struggle is indicative of it maybe being time to break that system instead of contributing to it. Sure, that's not practical advice for a college grad either, but it feels like a more truthful, and therefore fruitful path to think towards.

In addition to following your dreams feeling like something that is typically only likely for those with privilege (hello, from the family with a financially and emotionally supportive grandma and parents who always encouraged my continued education), I think the examples of success she pulls for the book seem limited. Yes, you can find exceptions to any rule, but most people can't afford to work the low paying job to gain experience right out of college. I agree with the sentiment she presents that it's a bummer how much higher education has changed, but we can't ignore that the rest of our society is not set up to support a place where anyone can go to learn about themselves and their dreams while working for free or for pennies to gain experience. Even worse, many of these paths no longer lead to promotions and raises the way they used to. Companies, ever focused on money, look at short term goals that don't prioritize people. The older ideas about workplaces being a second home with a family of coworkers now ring hollow for most people, and I think for good reason.

At one point, she highlights an example of shocking her daughter's friend with the financial possibilities of historical work. However, she does so with the acknowledgement that she's citing the very top tier of jobs, of which there are few. Also, being a director of an institution isn't necessarily the same dream as being a historical researcher, curator, or educator, which are needed jobs that don't pay enough as it is. I think this is just one example, using a field I'm familiar with, that rings too hollow to me.

Overall, I think this short book is well-intentioned, if a little misguided. It both acknowledges the growing challenges younger generations are facing, while trying to maintain advice based on a sort of status quo approach to fulfilling work. I don't know that the notion of work being a calling can really function very well as general advice today, if it ever did. And I say this at the end of a PhD in History, a path I picked with the full understanding that it would likely lead to very little financial success, I just enjoyed it and was pretty good at it. I don't know that I would pick it again, knowing what I know now. I think I'll find work, more likely something adjacent to what I want to be doing, and that's perfectly fine. Not particularly inspirational, but acceptable. Along the way, I've come to believe that work really doesn't have to be fulfilling either, there are many ways to find fulfillment in life, and frankly, I think work is one of the last places we should concentrate that effort until we vastly overhaul what work is for.

In the end, I think maybe the book I would've enjoyed more from Kantor is focused on an idea she puts forward on page 82:

"My last piece of advice is not for you. It's for alumni, older adults, and especially anyone who has achieved a measure of success, authority, or power. Together, we need to reestablish the idea that older people are advocates and protectors for those who are just starting out. Mentorship is in peril. With digital interviewing, AI sapping entry-level jobs, and people relating to one another through screens, it's getting harder for young people to find champions and teachers. There is so much beauty in intergenerational workplace relationships. These are opportunities to be children or parents again, but on professional grounds."

That last part is indicative of what I fear are the worst parts of this book's ideology, relying on outdated notions of workplaces as families. We've seen the damage that attitude has done, and I think the next generations are sick of it already, I get it.

More importantly, the first part of the quote, focused on the adults in power needing to take responsibility, that's what feels like the topic she has the strength to speak on. Too often I felt like her approach to younger generations was out of touch. It read like someone who has lived through the challenging stages of crafting a career, and come out the other side with something akin to wisdom gained through experience. However, I think the state of things is different enough that the advice based on those experiences really doesn't hold as well as she would hope. Yes, trying to break through the digital slop to form personal relationships to help pursue a career you might enjoy is admirable and possible. For many, though, I think, very impractical as well, until bigger structures and sentiments change.

And that's why her point on page 82 struck me as the topic she could've presented a stronger argument for. She's in the perfect place to speak to those in power to do better, fix the broken structures that are harming college graduates trying to get started in their careers. I know she can't fix all of these things, and I know her investigative journalism work is often, or at least famously, an example of speaking out against the worst parts of our societal structures. I think the inspirational story she has to tell is better suited for those on her echelon and above, those who really need to hear that they can do better to make a better world. That it's not too late to care about the society they build rather than their own profits. I suppose in the end I don't know that I support the desperate desire for optimism because I think the youth being upset about the state of things can hopefully lead to a better state of things.

I'll leave this on a positive note. While I think the messaging we need is focused on changing the larger structures of our society, I admire the push she provides to focus on honing a craft. As I've seen other reviewers mention, I think this highlights an important need for us to all slow down, focus on doing good, quality things in the world. At the very least, that can be a cultural change towards a better world than the fast-paced and shallow thing we've leaned into the last few decades.

[Sage · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an expansion of a Columbia commencement address for undergrads who are understandably cynical about entering adulthood during this horrible zeitgeist. As an adult who never really "got started" in a chosen dream field due to (gesturing vaguely) Problems in my 20s and looking to restart after a major debilitating surgery, Kantor's approach was not helpful for me. She frequently says ominous things like "act before it's too late." Too late when and for what? A motivational speaker tapping their watch would not have uplifted me when I was a kid either, but now the sentiment is plain goofy.

The best advice Kantor offers encourages readers to hone their craft over time. I love the idea of everybody getting good at their Stuff despite AI and other cultural shifts trumpeting mediocrity. Another piece of good advice is finding a boss worthy of mutual respect... but Kantor chooses this part of the book to encourage women to prioritize romantic relationships over career because it worked out for her. It reminds me of the commencement speech David Brooks gave to my graduating class about how important marriage is and how we all should jump into it as soon as possible. The journalists... they are still worried about our sacred institutions...

Kantor offers similar advice as What Color is Your Parachute but with all the pluck and verve of a corporate aunt. Sorry, "The New York Times is counterculture"? I love the idea of the fourth estate too, but this is a ridiculous claim given NYT's stance on trans issues, American imperialism, and so on. Also, in the chapter about money she's like, (I am paraphrasing) "Y'all, art does make money! Did you know the head of a Houston-based art museum makes a million kajillion dollars a year?" She does not mention the oil money that inevitably funds such a position. Money pooling around corrupt industries is one of the things the Youth are mad about, so this was also goofy to read.

For more focused career advice, I would start with What Color is Your Parachute. It's a genuinely good resource, even with all the God talk.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

"One has to look on oneself as the custodian of a quantity and a quality - oneself- which is absolutely unique in the world because it has never been here before and will never he here again." James Baldwin, Nothing Personal

CONTENTS:
Introduction
Craft 17>
"Most successful, fulfilled people are practicing a combination of expertise and skill - the special thing they know how to do that other people do not. This is craft." 20

Need 31>
"Every generation gets a version of master Japanese. Here's the path for winners. Don't get left behind. Hurry up and learn genetics. No, computer science. Study Mandarin. Forget humanities. One word: plastics. The advice seems even louder today, and a lot of it is phrased in the negative. Don't go into public service, you'll get death threats.

"...She trained in dialogue facilitation and started a series of fresh student conversations. Twenty-five years later, she's an expert on gathering - a vocation, like many of the ones, that is not something you can apply for, that will never be listed in a career-services office. What it means: Priya's craft has developed to the point that she's a sought-after facilitator who gets paid to help companies and nonprofits turn their most painful internal conversations into moments of insight and connection." 33 She wrote "The Art of Gathering."
Money 41
How to Start 53
Why to Start 85

"How, in this environment (of protests on the Columbia campus), were they supposed to find and start their life's work?" 2
"...None of this grimness surprised me. For years I had watched these forces gathering and had published articles about the technological takeover transforming the workplace." 8
"...The notion of work as a source of fulfillment or progress began to sound naive to many young people. A labor activist captured rising sentiment with a book called 'Work Won't Love You Back.' " 8
"...I don't write advice books, and find myself surprised to be rising every day at dawn, before my workday begins, to generate these pages." 9
"...I have been drafting the beginnings of an escape plan from what others may tell you is inevitable." 11
"...The culture is swinging too far toward cynicism and fear. I have documented some of the worst of the workplace, and still I am telling you: Do not give up on it." 12
"...I want you to have every good thing that work can bring: satisfaction, fellowship, pay... Work is one of the legs that keeps the table of life standing up. Family, friendship, marriage, faith, rewarding work - take as many of these as you can get, because they operate in tandem. Relationships falter. People get sick. Jobs come and go. The combination keeps us upright, especially when one of the legs goes wobbly." 12
"...Do not give up before you even start...We do not yet know what the world will offer you." 13
"I went into a field that everyone told me was a disaster and experienced potency, impact, camaraderie, uplift, and even a measure of business success." 14
"...My mission here is to help you wrestle in the most fruitful way, making discoveries that will sustain and reward you for a lifetime. Just because this quest is difficult doesn't mean it can't involve joy and daring." 14
"...In particular, I want you to focus on two forces that power the best careers: craft and need. Each is important, but the real magic happens when we combine them. Together they can lead you to create something beautiful that will serve you and others." 15



Now that I've finished reading Kantor's book, I would answer in two ways:
1. Start anyway because you can't control the events going on around you in the world.
2. For people who haven't graduated from school yet, I would say: START NOW.

"That’s why craft always has to evolve based on need, to make sure the market is still there for you."

"We all need goals to strive for, individually and together. If you’ve had the best education this country has to offer - studying fascinating areas of human endeavor while earning a four-year degree - I recommend aiming to join the category of people who enjoy their work, contribute something to society, and make a good living."

"I wish our universities would set this as an explicit goal of education. But you can still make it your own." 44

MAKE IT YOUR OWN is the key.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this book up as a gift for some young folks in my life at the beginning of their working lives and after hearing a spirited interview of Kantor about the book by Tim Miller on The Bulwark podcast. The book reads like a bit of a reboot for our times of classics like What Color Is Your Parachute? and Do What You Love (the Money will Follow), with less of the specific workbook tasks of the former. Even if you haven't read those books, the message is pretty clear from the titles: don't settle for pre-defined career paths; find what will be the most fulfilling thing to do with your life; take a proactive role in creating the ideal job you want, not just the openings that are advertised; be open to the often frustrating and terrifying messiness of life, since the answer often lies down a road you only stumbled upon by accident. Kantor echoes all of this timely, perennial advice with slight updates for our digital, post-pandemic, AI-dawning, Trump impoverished world. The one thing this book cannot be accused of is being is cynical--but if I were a more cynical reader, I would say this slim, quick, aphoristic volume was timed perfectly for graduation gift season. But Kantor, after all, who is one of the Pulitzer Prize winning journalists who blew the whistle on Harvey Weinstein and basically lit the MeToo rocket, is probably not in the business of gaming the publishing system. I guess what I'm saying is that this a fine quick read for a graduating college student (who might even actually read it), but for hardcore practical advice about charting your own course, I think the What Color book probably still stands up pretty well.

[Anna Kefalas · Rating 4 out of 5]

“An important moment in your life is approaching. You do not know exactly when it will arrive. None of us do. Maybe it will come more than once, but you can’t be sure. The moment, the question, will be about whether you bet on yourself and your future happiness. Xxaria could have taken the solid job in psychology that did not offer any opportunity for research. In a cratering job market, that would have made plenty of sense. Paola could have stuck with nursing. Arjav and Tracy could have followed the recipe and opened a perfectly nice fine-dining restaurant. I could have stayed in law school and resisted the call of journalism. My parents would have been relieved and the entire global MeToo uprising might not have happened. That moment is going to mean everything for you too. You’ll have to know when to refuse to settle. To insist on something better for yourself. To take yourself seriously and take on some risk. The decision is yours to make. Choose wisely. Brace yourself for some people to misunderstand or disapprove. Go find that room of yours. For your own sake, certainly, and for ours too.’”

summer reading challenge going strong! this is my third book of the challenge (category: a really short or a really long book). i opted for a really short book bc this one has been on my mind since i spotted it in a bookstore on the cape a few weeks ago (and promptly returned to that same bookstore to sit on the floor and read this book, which is how i finished it in one day). as the target audience for this book, i thought it was very insightful and would have loved to see the commencement speech it grew out of.