It’s a tough job being a parent, but that’s what home life is all about for young children – it’s the place where they can make a mistake and know they’ve got someone there to pick them up, dry their tears and dust them off.

As they grow older, though, there’s less and less of the automatic tear-drying and dusting off until the time comes to start life at university.  Much of that lessening of drying and dusting encourages children to sort things out for themselves and think of the parental presence more as a safety net if need be.

And because students and their parents are probably many miles apart, university life offers the chance to work through any problems without the parental safety net, but all the while being secure in the knowledge that if it gets too much there’s always the option of phoning home.

Right after uni, then, is the time when the average graduate suddenly realises they still have a lot to learn about life in the real world.

So what is it they may not know yet … but don’t know they don’t know it?  Here are some possibilities:

About themselves: Until they’ve discovered who they are, they’re not going to be able to decide who they want to be.  Discovering who they are means accepting themselves, warts and all, and remembering that comparing themselves to anyone else on the planet is just an exercise in futility.  And can be very depressing.

About the real world: It’s a harsh place – and all those “happy ever after” stories are just that:  stories.  That doesn’t mean there’ll be no happy ever after endings, ever, but things just aren’t clear-cut and tidy … life can be dreadfully unfair … and in far too many cases there simply is no justice.  But then again, it’s not what life throws at a person that defines them:  it’s how they deal with what’s been thrown that’s important.

About the working world: There will be office politics in any workplace.  Just like at school there will be bullies who dish it out, and unfortunates who’ll spend their working day taking it.  The best bet for any graduate is to stay out of those little games if at all possible, and concentrate on the two most important aspects of life at work:  being seen to be useful and productive … and taking the kind of action that makes their immediate superiors look good.

About life outside work: Now is the best time to travel, even if there isn’t much money available:  at this age – and at this level of physical fitness – it’s so much easier to rough it, for a start.  And as people move further and further along their career path it becomes more and more difficult to step off that path for any kind of sabbatical, especially when there’s a family to feed as well.  Free time shouldn’t comprise lounging around waiting for inspiration to strike, but should be filled with scheduled activities which, because they’ve been arranged and require a commitment, will be more enjoyable.

About money: Even though it may still be a novelty to get a regular paycheque, it’s never too early to develop the skill of keeping spending levels as low as possible. Learning to live well within one’s means is something that many adults never manage to achieve, for all kinds of reasons.  These include being careless with credit cards, and not taking a set percentage of each paycheque and putting it straight into in an interest-bearing account.

About friends: It’s impossible to be friends with absolutely everyone, so it’s best not to waste time and energy even trying to make friends with as many people as possible.  Better, then, to build and maintain a social network made up of fewer – but closer – friends. After all, as the cliché goes, a person is the average of the five people they spend the most time with, so it’s worth making sure those five are the right five.

And there’s so much more for new graduates to discover about themselves and the world they find themselves in all of a sudden.  But as long as they’re aware that even though at times it may feel like the world is out to get them, it’s not really the case … and the truth is, adulthood can be a lot more fun than many grown-ups would actually care to admit.