Dear Class of 2026

Dear Class of 2026,

You're entering the world at a very strange and pivotal time.

Entire industries are changing faster than most institutions can adapt. AI is evolving before many people have even figured out how they feel about it. The path that worked for someone five years ago may already be outdated by the time you read this.

Is it terrifying or exciting? 

I think it's both.

A lot of people will tell you to focus on stability. Stay competitive. “AI, AI, AI”… or else become irrelevant. 

I understand where they're coming from. 

But they are not you.

And no one is.

In fact, I think one of the most important things you can do right now is build the kind of courage that comes from actually following what you want, regardless of whether the crowd is with you.

Here’s the thing: working hard is not an outdated ethic. It still matters deeply. A restaurant’s success doesn’t only come from the hours you see it open for customers. It comes from all the unseen hours behind the scenes—developing recipes, cleaning the kitchen, preparing ingredients, fixing what didn’t work, refining the experience before anyone even walks through the door.

And yet, hard work alone is no longer enough.

The harder question is where to direct that effort in the first place.

Many people are still standing in line for the most popular restaurant in town, even when it's about to close. Meanwhile, there's a completely open restaurant across the street that no one has noticed. Or, maybe you're not meant to wait in line at all. Maybe you're meant to build an entirely new restaurant of your own.

That's not just a question for your generation. Most of us are standing at some version of that decision tree, but you have the chance to choose before the path itself feels like too much to lose.

Will you wait on the sidelines until your turn comes, hoping the system still has space for you? Or will you get involved in building the future you're stepping into?

The people who thrive may not be the ones with the most perfect resumes. They may be the ones who notice change earlier than everyone else, and are willing to move before they have certainty.

As AI evolves faster than ever, the safest answers may no longer be the most useful ones. That's one reason knowing yourself truly matters. That kind of clarity rarely comes from having your entire life figured out in your early twenties. It doesn't come from another diploma either. It comes from paying attention to what keeps pulling at your curiosity, even when no one tells you it's practical.

Honestly, I'd be far more worried if you didn't care deeply about anything right now than if you didn't have a five-year plan.

A hobby. A niche interest. Something you lose track of time doing. 

People underestimate what happens when you spend years getting genuinely good at something simply because you love it. The things you love enough to keep practicing may eventually take you somewhere you never could have planned, but one day feel deeply grateful you arrived.

Reflect often.

Learn your patterns, 

and learn how to dissolve them too.

AI can replicate patterns incredibly well. What it cannot replicate is the strange combination of taste, memory, instinct, timing, humor, discernment, and lived experience that makes a person who they are, and who they choose to become.

One thing AI hasn’t changed is that people still want to work with people they trust. We still enjoy being around people we like, people who know how to listen, how to care, how to help. For all the change happening around us, some things remain surprisingly the same... in the best possible way.

Which means human skills have been, and still are, survival skills.

The people who navigate this next era well may not be the ones who knew exactly where they were going from the start. They may be the ones who stayed curious enough to embrace unfamiliar territory, honest enough to notice when something no longer fits, but most importantly, brave enough to follow what keeps calling them forward.

So spend as much time understanding yourself as you do building your resume. 

One of those will help you get a job. 

The other helps you decide which jobs are worth having.

Your generation's challenge isn't just learning how to land a job and keep it forever. It's learning how to exercise your discernment and keep choosing—what deserves your attention, what deserves your effort, and who you want to become as the world keeps changing around you.

Don't fear being wrong. Fear making no decision at all.

And as you step into the real world, I'd like to invite you to think BIC: Bold. Intentional. Creative.

That's the Bloom in Crisis way.

Congratulations ❤️