In just a couple of days it will be 2016, and that year has a lot of meaning to me. Over 10 years ago, my friends and I did the math in our heads and realized that 2016 would be the year we graduate college. It was the year that was printed on my college acceptance letter and it has been the year that follows my name when I sign off on e-mails. So 2016 has been in the back of my mind for a while, (and also for thousands of other soon-to-be-graduates). In a couple of days it will be here and present. Of course, I still have many months to go until I hit graduation, but the year will be written at the end of the dates I write on my papers, and that's enough to remind me that I will soon be off in the "real-world".
I pretty much have had everything planned out for me up until the year 2016. I knew early on that a small liberal arts college with a medium sized town would be perfect for me. I knew I wanted to study psychology and music.I knew that I was already gravitating towards social and child psychology, and I knew I wanted to be in as many music ensembles as possible. Yes, there were many things along the way that I could not have planned: getting certain jobs and internships, and the array of friends I have made and have lost touch with definitely could not have been planned. But for the most part, everything has gone as I would have liked it to.
But now, when I graduate in a couple of months, I will have no idea what is going to happen. I have no plan, I have no concrete direction. This is the first time where I don't know where I am going. But guess what? I'm okay with that. I'm okay with telling my relatives that I do not know what I am doing after graduation. For the first time in a while, I get to see what comes my way. Yes, I have to apply for jobs--in that sense I need to have some focus. Yet in reality, I'm just ready to go out and explore. Explore jobs I hate, explore jobs I love, deal with bosses that are horrible, deal with a low income; I'm ready to just find my way without any direction.
So that's all I want to say, maybe you can relate, or maybe you know exactly what happens after you graduate. But if you can relate, know that people are in the same boat as you, and that 2016 will finally be the year of free exploration.
