High school’s behind you and an adult life full of possibilities unfurls itself.

But for many young people, the transition from youth to adulthood is a milestone fraught with uncertainty. 

It’s easy for us to think today’s youth – so often maligned for being uber-confident, technology-obsessed and materialistic – have it easy.

But this generation is also a generation under more pressure to succeed than any before it.

Youth Week, a national celebration of young people aged 12 to 25, is a time for us all to reflect on that.

Being a teenager or young adult is a time of intense change, when many rightly question society’s definition of success.

And those young people should know this; the most successful in life are those that took the path less travelled.

They’re the people who recognised that success meant finding their passion and, consequently, finding themselves.

And university isn’t always the best place to go looking.

Only real-life experience – with all its failure and festivity, injustice and inspiration – will guide you towards self-awareness and self-fulfilment.

Life’s true lessons will be learned away from the classroom – some people will dislike you for no good reason; freedom and love tend to contradict each other; the material things you long for will not give you joy; the only way to do anything well is to work really, really hard.

And, most importantly, no matter how tough life gets, there are always reasons to be happy, caring, brave and amused.

Ultimately, happiness is being true to yourself – not your parents, and not society’s one-dimensional view of success.

Finding yourself is much harder than earning a six-figure salary – and it’s a hell of a lot more rewarding.