Life after college. Apparently it’s a real thing that we are actually supposed to prepare for?? Heading into the second semester of my junior year (I don’t even want to think about you seniors…), I’ve kind of sort of gone into a little bit of a panic mode. Sure, I know the basics that everyone tells you to do to prepare: make sure you have good grades, go out and intern as much as possible, have a job lined up for after graduation if possible, etc. But that just gets me to the point of walking across the stage in May (to be honest, at that point I will be solely concerned with tripping over my own two left feet and nose-diving in front of thousands of people). But after we get treated like the star of the show for the day, what’s next? What am I not thinking of? What happens the next day, the next few months, the next few years? What am I will my life really be like after I graduate?

*cue calming breathing techniques*

Once I snapped out of the woe-is-me freak-out moment, I did the only thing a completely capable and independent college adult should do.

I called my mom.

After a few (OK, maybe like 30) minutes of her reassuring me that it would okay, that I wasn’t alone in being unprepared, I was still anxious, still wary about not knowing what to expect.

So I decided to talk to ask more people, to see what they wished they had known before starting that post-grad life. Hopefully this short list helps ease your worries ( and not make you go into overdrive like me…) just a bit!

1. Plan

This one probably seems like a duh, but more often than not it is so easy to give into convenience rather than taking a little extra time and effort to formulate a plan. This especially comes into play when we’re talking about things like time management or budgeting—if we do simple things like keep a written schedule (or use the handy-dandy little calendar app on your phone) and stick to a budget where we delegate a certain amount of money to things like groceries, gas for our cars, bills, entertainment, etc., we will find ourselves in fewer sticky situations and hopefully be a bit less stressed!

2. Make time for your friends and family who are away.

This one might not apply to everyone, but if you’re like me and plan on moving away, the thought of leaving my friends and family behind and only seeing them once around Christmas or summer vacation is a no-go. So, make time. Yes, it’d be great to visit home if we can, but we don’t even have to do that—hello Skype or FaceTime! They’re no substitute for being in person, but when that’s not possible, they’re a great way to stay connected and maintain those relationships as best as we can.

3. Find a mentor.

In whatever career path we choose, it is very likely that we will work under someone who is doing the same type of work, but they have probably been doing it a while longer. USE THEM. Most people (at least I choose to believe so!) like to help others, or they at least like the satisfaction of knowing they were an integral part of someone else succeeding. It doesn’t have to be in our career, either; it can be in our spiritual walks or maybe someone we simply admire for how they have gone about living life. We need to talk to them; go out for coffee or drinks; glean all the knowledge and wisdom from them that we can. In the meantime, we’ll build a relationship with them, making them more inclined to care about helping and guiding us.

4. Don't fear the word "failure."

It’s inevitable. As a person in her early 20, if I walk into a room full of professionals, it’s almost a guarantee that I will be the one who knows the least about what I’m doing. The others in the room know that. We will make mistakes, big and small, but that’s not the part we should focus on. What we should focus on is taking the experience, taking feedback and advice from others (because they have likely made very similar mistakes), and use that to figure out how to do better next time, on how to improve. But, we need to realize that improving likely doesn’t mean we won’t mess up again. It might mean we will mess up on a lesser scale or that we learn to more efficiently and effectively handle the mistake in the future.

5. Be mindful of your health.

We’ve all gotten a little taste of this in college, of trying to actually have the motivation to go workout, eat right or get enough sleep. However, in the real world, there is no free workout facility with fun group classes or grade-A workout equipment, and we’re not surrounded by gaggles of other people who have the same schedule as us so they can always go get a workout in with us. So, we have to prioritize this. We need to plan this out, too, and make it to where it fits our schedules. No excuses, either—if the morning before work is the only time we can squeeze it in, we’ve got to do it (and this is coming from someone who believes no one should talk before 10 am). We’ll feel so much better, more energetic and happy, if we take care of our bodies!

We can’t only take care of our bodies, though. Both mental and emotional health are EXTREMELY important, but they are often put on the back burner because they are not always as readily apparent or as easily taken care of. Make sure to figure out a self-care routine, a way to relax and unwind that is easy and convenient. For me, I always have a time before bed where I check in with one of my best friends and vent, then I watch a show on Netflix or read a book that takes absolutely no brain power. Also, if possible, therapy is always a great avenue to utilize—it is literally the therapist’s job to help us figure out and sort through emotions, stressors, confusions, etc. Why not take advantage of that if we can??

The most important thing to remember about all of this, though, is that it is a learning experience. Yes, we can prepare all we want, we can make lists upon lists and plan everything out, but in the end we never know for sure what will happen. Everyone will face different circumstances, make different choices, live entirely different lives.

We just have to learn as we go, take each moment as it comes, and remember to breath a little.

As my family always says when life gets crazy: it’s always an adventure!