Written by Brianna Wiest From Brianna Wiest — internationally bestselling author of The Mountain Is You, 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think, The Pivot Year, and more. In May 2024, Brianna Wiest returned to Elizabethtown College to deliver the commencement address to its graduating class. "The 9 Things Every Graduate Should Know" is that speech, transcribed and designed as a book: nine lessons she wishes she had known at the moment of her own beginning, written to an audience of one — the version of herself standing on exactly that threshold.