Michelle Hibbert LLC

After 18 years in education, here's the thing I can't unsay.

We told an entire generation that success meant grades, high gpa’s, valedictorian, distinctions, top of the class and we said it so consistently, so confidently, that nobody thinks to question it.

I was part of that system. I believed in it too.

But here's what the transcripts doesn't cover.

How to interview for a job and actually get it.

How credit works and what happens when you don't understand it before you need it.

How to walk into a room full of important people and hold a real conversation.

How to read a health insurance document and know what you're actually signing up for.

How to manage money before it manages you.

Nobody taught that. Not in the UK and not in the US.

Not in the private school or the public one.

And parents are doing everything they can trying to cover as much ground as possible before their kid turns 18 and the clock runs out. Working through the checklist hoping something sticks.

But life doesn't wait for the checklist to be finished.

The students I taught who had the highest grades were not always the ones who landed on their feet and the ones who struggled in the classroom were not always the ones who fell apart after graduation.

What made the difference consistently across two countries, across 18 years, was whether that young person knew who they were and whether they had any sense of how to navigate uncertainty. Whether someone had taken the time to prepare them for real life, not just the next exam.

That's the gap and it's not a small one.

It's exactly why I now do what I do.

Grades do matter, I'm not saying they don't but a transcript is not a person and we've spent decades treating it like it is.

If you have a teen or an emerging adult and something in this week's posts has felt familiar- the uncertainty, the unpreparedness, the "we did everything right and it still feels like something's missing", I'd love to talk.

Let’s just have a conversation. Send me a message or drop a comment below.

Because your emerging adult doesn't have to figure it out alone and honestly, neither do you as a parent.

I dropped everything to move across the pond.

I spotted a job advert in a teaching newspaper and moved to a different country four months later.

No husband. No plan B. Just an interview in April and a one-way flight booked for August to Atlanta.

The USA was not my first go at moving abroad.. I'd tried to teach in Canada first but a teacher exchange fell through. Then I was ready to head to New Zealand, but their school year runs January to December. So having to give my notice in October without the guarantee of a job was logistically impossible.

So Atlanta was my third attempt at teaching abroad and by the time the interview came up, I was ready to make this role mine and move.

Plus Atlanta wasn't completely unknown to me as I had already visited during the Olympics in 96. Plus I even had cousins already living there.

In some ways, it felt like going back somewhere I already knew.

What I was excited about?

Having more space.

The shopping.

The sneakers shopping.

(Clothes and trainers are so much cheaper in the US, it's not even close.)

And the chance to travel, to see more states, and be near family.

What I was nervous about?

Making friends at 30 in a foreign place as a foreigner.

Also navigating a completely different system as a single woman and the practical things nobody warns you about.

Because the surprises came fast once I arrived.

The apartments were enormous.

Strangers said hello on the street unprompted and that genuinely took me months to get used to.

People assumed I was American until I opened my mouth.

Then they thought I was faking the accent. How dare they!!

Even the weather surprised me as I flew back to the UK in December and it was 72 degrees. Unheard of in the UK.

What did shock me was the food.

Cheese on everything. Why???

How sweet bread can be.

How much sugar was in juices.

But the thing that really caught me off guard was that my credit didn't transfer from the UK. Years of good history in the UK meant nothing here. in the USA. I had to start from zero.

Getting a driving license, a social security number, a bank account….. none of it was simple. Buying a car without credit meant knowing the right people.

Nobody tells you that part when you're packing for a fresh start but I had to figured it out.

I think about those early months often because the young people I work with are navigating their own version of that exact feeling.

A new chapter.

Unfamiliar systems.

Trying to build a life without a manual.

The disorientation is real and it to shall pass eventually.

But it passes faster when someone's been through it and can help you see what's actually happening.

If any part of this sounds familiar…. the uncertainty, the figuring-it-out-as-you-go, the wishing someone had just told you what to expect, that's exactly the work I do with teens and emerging adults every day.

Drop a comment or send me a message.

And if you've enjoyed this story, I'll be sharing more this week.