Congratulations to the Class of 2016! For those of you that are just about to start your journey into adulthood and college life, this article is for you!
June 18th at 8 in the morning, I had the privilege of watching my best friend graduate from (now) our Alma Mater, a wonderful experience. The Convention Center was filled with 475 high school graduates, at least 50 faculty/staff, and at least 3 bleachers full of people watching the amazing graduation ceremony.
Your grade school years may have just ended, but a new adventure is just beginning — college and many other aspects of adulthood (bills, better paying jobs, more responsibility). I hope you get as prepared as you can for this adventure called adulthood and to help with that, I have put together a list of things that have helped me this past year.
1. Pack Accordingly.
The college, trade institution, military organization that you will be going to once you graduate will require you to bring certain items that will help you settle into your new life. You will need to figure out (at the very least) the basics that you will need to take with you, whether or not that may be contacts and glasses (and their respective cases), toothbrush and toothpaste, towels, shower items, etc.
2. Be Ready to Make New Friends. Or Not.
The people you will be with for the next however many years are important, whether you understand that sooner or later. You may become best friends for life with some, while others you may never speak to again. You'll make new friends, even new best friends, but sometimes it's very possible you could meet people that will never make it on your list as anything even close to acquaintances and vice versa.
Your new friends will help you in the future.
3. Learn New Things.
Whether it's how to take care of yourself, how to deal with roommates, how to make friends with your professors and the other faculty/staff, how you personally learn in class, or many more. If you don't figure out any of that, I know you will learn at least one thing about yourself in the first year after you graduate, and that's how to be yourself.
4. And Above All, Have Fun!
Life can get a little hectic, even more so now that you've graduated high school, but find some way to have fun and keep a little sanity in your life every once in a while. Maybe it could be video games, shopping, arts and crafts, working, or even hanging out with friends, just make sure you start to learn how to balance your life because before you know it, 50-something with regrets of letting others tell you how to do everything.
"Ends are not bad things, they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that don't really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way. Ends are not bad and many ends aren't really an ending; some things are never-ending."
-C. JoyBell C.
