It can be very intimidating to take on the world this way, far from your family and the people you’ve grown up with. It is, however, sometimes the most necessary decision, depending on how you want to grow in life. My younger cousin, Noah, is finding this out in real time.
He just turned 18, the month after he graduated from high school, and come the fall, he’ll be attending college away from home. As with most teenagers in his situation, this will be the first time he’s out on his own, and he has been very honest about feeling anxious and hesitant.
Noah and I are about 10 years apart in age, and we’ve always lived close, so he’s more like a little brother than a cousin. I’ve been there to watch him grow, literally, from birth, and it’s been so great to see the brilliant, good-hearted man he’s becoming.
We first knew Noah was destined for big things when he was in second grade and the teachers had to send him to the fourth-grade room for a couple of classes because he read at such an advanced level and was so proficient in math for a kid his age. This never really stopped as he got older.
In middle school, Noah was taking advanced classes and also started talking band, playing saxophone, and very quickly becoming proficient. I swear there is nothing this guy can’t do. The very first time I took him to play pickleball, he fully dominated the court and is now playing in local tournaments for fun.
High school is where Noah began to soar. Once again, he took advanced classes, earning himself some college credits along the way. He also helped his school start a pickleball club, which spread to other schools in the district, and now they all compete with one another regularly.
Academically, Noah is, to put it frankly, a damn genius. He has a 4.0 grade average and, as you probably already guessed, is valedictorian. He has an incredible mind for math, but is deeply passionate about history, which is what he intends to study in college.
Photo provided by David Brown
Now that he’s been accepted to a really good university and is in preparation to move two states away, it’s all starting to hit Noh just how much he doesn’t know about the world and how it works. For all his teenage accomplishments, he’s hitting a wall around moving out and starting a new chapter in life.
I’m sympathetic to Noah’s feelings because I completely understand what he’s experiencing. When I first left home for college several years ago, I felt unprepared and lost, and I wasn’t even moving hundreds of miles away from home. I went to school only about 30 minutes from the home I grew up in, but it was still a challenge to acclimate to college life and adulting.
True story: I washed my clothes for about three months without using detergent because I just didn’t think about it. I also used to wash my dishes with regular hand soap because I believed it to be the same as dish soap. Imagine my surprise the first time I used one to clean my plates. A world of difference.
It’s these kinds of experiences I anticipate for Noah, and I’ve told him that. As strange as they were in the moment, I can look back on them now and laugh, and share those experiences with the world without feeling fear or shame. Why? These are things we all go through. Everyone can relate to growing pains, but you do ultimately have to go through them on your own to truly understand.
Enter: LG’s Radio Optimism. During my usual lunchtime social media scroll, I happened upon an ad for this cool website where you can make up songs for special people in your life. The way it works is you write something up about a person who could use a little encouragement, and the website makes a positive, upbeat song for them. You can also choose what genre you want the song to be.
I checked it out and decided to make a song for Noah. I typed in what he’s dealing with, chose the song to be in the style of hip-hop, and then selected an “upbeat” vibe. The track that came out was called “You Got This, Noah,” and it was an uplifting song that acknowledged “adulting’s a journey” but encouraged him to let “strength be your guide.”
The next time Noah and I got together, just a couple of days ago, I got to share the song with him, and his reaction could not have been more perfect. He bobbed his head and smiled big, and thanked me for thinking about him.
I would suggest using Radio Optimism to make a song for someone in your life who needs a little encouragement, because trying to show up for Noah during this period of his life has not been without challenges. As I’ve said, a lot of adulting is learning to do things on your own, but we all deserve a support system. Noah has a good one, and I think he knows it. Now, I just need to remember to get him some detergent as a going-away gift.
Visit RadioOptimism.LG.com to try it yourself.
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