Le righe
- You finished a nursing degree at night while working full time.
- Congratulations. There's no advice in this card, on purpose.
- Four years and you paid for two of them yourself.
- For the dorm drawer. It keeps for weeks, so pace yourself.
- Your grandmother would have driven six hours for this. I'm going in her place.
- You were the first one in this family to finish. That's not a small sentence.
- Congratulations. Now go be underemployed and interesting for two years.
- I watched you almost quit in your second year. You didn't.
- Whatever you do next, you'll be bad at it for a while, and that's normal.
- Proud of you, and I've been saying it to other people behind your back for months.
- Cash is in the envelope. This is the part that isn't cash.
- Second degree at 41. Harder than the first, less applause. I noticed.
If you only remember one thing
Short and specific beats long and general. “I still think about you driving me to the airport at five in the morning” does more work than three sentences of sympathy, because only you could have written it.