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For many students, the transition to post-18 marks a quiet but profound change. What was once a structured, predictable environment has suddenly become open and ambiguous. While this stage is often described as a time of freedom and possibility, it is also when many young adults experience a sharp decline in confidence, clarity, and direction.
Today’s world is changing, making it challenging. And at this age, students are also changing, making it even more difficult for them to cope. The first reason students struggle today is obvious: the world they are entering is changing rapidly. Careers are no longer linear, industries are being reshaped by technology, and traditional markers of success are feeling increasingly unstable. But the deeper issue is not just that the world is changing… the point is that most students are not prepared to engage with the changing world.
Higher education has traditionally focused on content mastery and performance metrics. Students are trained to assimilate information, follow instructions, and optimize for grades. They are rarely taught how to deal with uncertainty, how to understand complex choices, or how to plan a way forward when the answers are unclear. When familiar structures are destroyed, many students find themselves without the internal tools to make decisions.
At the same time, students themselves are changing—cognitively, emotionally, and psychologically. Between ages 18 and mid-twenties, the brain undergoes significant development, especially in areas related to self-regulation, decisions, and identity formation. This is a period in the making, yet most educational systems treat students as if they are already formed. The mismatch creates anxiety, self-doubt, and a feeling of being “backward”, even though confusion is developmentally normal.
Another important difference is in metacognition – the ability to think about one’s own thinking. Many students are highly capable, yet struggle to understand how they learn, what energizes them, or why some choices feel wrong. Without reflective practices, they interpret uncertainty as a personal failure rather than a natural part of development. Students are also rarely encouraged to experiment. In a system that rewards correctness and punishes mistakes, young people learn to avoid risk. But in a dynamic world, progress comes through small experiments – trying, learning, adjusting. Without exposure to low-stakes experimentation, students feel paralyzed by the pressure to “get it right” the first time.
Finally, many students lack structured opportunities to get to know themselves better. Self-awareness of values, strengths, motivations, and constraints is not innate. It must be cultivated. When this inner work is absent, external comparisons take over, reducing self-confidence even more. Self-confidence crisis after 18 years is not a personal failure. This is a systemic difference. As the world becomes more uncertain, education must move beyond preparing students for known paths and instead equip them with the skills to navigate the unknown with reflection, experimentation, and self-understanding.
Only then can confidence grow… not from certainty, but from ability.
(Author Navayug Mohnot is a Stanford-trained Life Design Educator, Certified Coach and Facilitator. Views are personal.)
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