Okay, so maybe they did tell you that some of these things would happen, but did you actually believe them? I know I didn't. One day I was living the dream and the next all my friends left our college town, went home, and started their careers. Here is what they didn't tell you would happen when you graduate college:
1. College is really over.
I know this sounds self-explanatory, but it doesn't hit you until you graduate that this coming fall you won't be returning back to campus to see all your friends and create more college memories. You won't be tailgating for football games, pregaming during your 5 pm class for the 7 pm basketball game, or waking up at 1 in the afternoon go grab brunch.
2. You're a real adult now.
At the age of 18, you're a legal adult. However, you don't really become an adult until you graduate college, get a job, and start paying your own bills. And the worst part? It all happens at once-- there is no transition period. One day you're a college kid looking forward to the game on Saturday, the next day you're waking up at 6 to get ready for your 9-5.
3. Your friends start to disappear.
This is the worst part I think. You are so used to waking up to a house filled with your friends, and then one day you wake up alone. It's not as easy to make plans anymore because coordinating around everyone's work schedule is difficult. Sometimes your friends even move away, and it's hard to stay in touch. Of course you make promises to stay in touch, meet up for happy hour once a week. But when your boss asks you to stay late at work, or your genuinely exhausted after a long day, those little things become hard.
4. Napping becomes almost impossible.
Ah, naps. They have become an essential part of your daily schedule. You once planned your entire day around when you could take a nap and now....now you're lucky if you get five minutes to just sit down and have a cup of coffee. Naps become a thing of the past, and now you have to regulate your sleep schedule. Gone are the days you stayed up until 3 am and slept until noon.
5. You have to start eating like an adult.
In the adult world, it is typically not acceptable to order Dominos for dinner every night. You have to teach yourself how to cook, and fast. You see your coworkers all bringing these healthy, straight out of a Facebook cooking video meals and you start to feel insecure about your bag of chips and granola bar. Microwaving ramen at the work place is also probably frowned upon. Time to sign up for some cooking classes.
6. Happy hour is no longer a pregame.
I don't know about you, but I used to think of happy hour as the shirt before the shirt-- you know, it was something you did before going out at night. You'd get really tipsy and then hop on the train to your next destination to finish off the night. Not anymore! Now happy hour is just that, an hour. You have a few drinks, and are home by dinner time.
7. You live for the weekends.
Everything is relative to Friday. Monday? Well, that's the worst day of your life but Wednesday is only two work days away from freedom! You can't wait to sleep past 7 (hopefully) and see your friends. And if you're feeling extra outgoing, you may even stay out past 10 pm!
Change is scary. Change is difficult. But whether you like it or not, change is happening. You can no longer prolong the inevitable. Life changes a lot during this time, but not all of those changes are bad because
8. You find your independence.
The day you no longer have to rely on mom and dad to pay your bills is a very liberating moment. You learn to fend for yourself. You start finding little hobbies that you like, you finally learn how to file your own taxes, and you become a better version of yourself. You don't feel the need to call home about every problem, although you still can because it's something you love to do. You learn the meaning of the expression that you're a "small fish in a big pond" but you go out there and make a splash anyways.
9. You learn time management.
Time management is a carefully crafted art that takes years of practice. College was the pregame and now it's time to put everything you've learned into action! How else are you going to go to work, grocery shop, pay the bills, meet up with friends, sleep, go for a run, have two cups of coffee, eat 3 meals, run errands, and get ready for the next day all in a 12-hour time frame?
10. The best is yet to come.
Some people say that college is the best four years of your life, but if that is true, that means everything goes downhill by the age of 22. You still have the rest of your life ahead of you! So go out and see the world. Take that vacation you've always wanted, talk to that stranger in the bar, take that job across the country for a few years. Life is way too short to sit back and watch the sand fall in the hour glass, so go out there and make these next years the best time of your life. Besides, if the characters of How I Met Your Mother found time to have the time of their lives while dating, having children, and working full time jobs, so can you!
