Congratulations grads, you've finally made it. All those years spent flipping through textbooks, typing up papers and trying to stay awake in the library have finally paid off. Although it felt as if time was moving at a snail's pace, now that it's over it feels like a blink of the eye.
The feeling of never again having to attend a lecture or take an exam is extraordinary and removes a weight from our shoulders that would often riddle us with anxiety and exhaustion. But now that we are un-rooted from the tree of collegiate knowledge, we are faced with daunting opportunity. After all of our hard work it's time for the real work to begin and it's time we experience the payoff. We can only hope that somewhere during our college experience we have developed the capability to overcome the challenges which lie ahead.
Here are 5 things going through every recent college grads head:
1. It's Time To Start Fresh
It's natural during an important transition period to want to leave stuff behind in the past to make room for the future. This isn't just old books and school supplies but a way of life. We've adjusted over the course of 4 or more years to college life and everything we've done was to satisfy the goal of graduation. Some of our passions had to be ignored because we simply didn't have time to explore them. Now is the time for us to do the things we've always wanted to do. We are in a new world that we have more control over.
2. Forgot about student loans...
Talk about a buzzkill. There's stress with this but also motivation to go out and find the job of our dreams. And we obsess over the feeling we'll have when these loans are paid off...
3. Where should I live?
It's either move back with the parents or become homeless, usually. We've all adapted to a certain lifestyle that makes living with our parents a little difficult but we still want full fridge access, so what do we do? If you're on the ball and you're able to afford your own place or move in with friends than you're probably having a pretty good time right now. For those of us who haven't centered on a job quite yet we are appreciative of our parents hospitality but still need some space.
4. Who am I?
As much as people like to think, college graduates are not their major. We've found a field of study we enjoy and plan on becoming professionals in that field but it's not who we are.Though we were all grouped up with others in our same major it was clear that all of those individuals shared many differences. No matter what job we find ourselves in we will still spend most of our lives trying to answer the above question.
5. Were those really the best years of our lives?
Obviously this depends on your particular experience but I think even if the answer is yes, you shouldn't prepare for the rest of your life with the idea that you've peaked and nothing will get better. There are a lot of great things to come and "settling down" doesn't necessarily mean "slowing down". I enjoyed most of my time spent at school but I'd throw up if you told me I had to spend one more semester there.
We all handle moving on from college life differently. For some it's an easier transition but for others it's far more difficult. With all of these things rattling around in our heads we can get stressed and often worry about our future but hey, it's nothing we're not already used to.
