by Brianna Wiest From Brianna Wiest — internationally bestselling author of The Mountain Is You, 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think, The Pivot Year, and more. Her books have sold over 1 million copies worldwide, appear regularly on international bestseller lists, and are translated into more than 40 languages. In May 2024, Brianna Wiest returned to Elizabethtown College to deliver the commencement address to its graduating class.

"The 9 Things Every Graduate Should Know" is that speech, transcribed and designed as a book: nine lessons she wishes she had known at the moment of her own beginning, written to an audience of one — the version of herself standing on exactly that threshold. A few of these lesson:

1. Don't reject yourself first. The world will have plenty of chances to reject you. Don't give it a head start by never entering the arena. Victories, Wiest argues, become inevitabilities — but only for those who keep going.
2. Do not stop believing you can create a life you love, even af