32 days ago I graduated college with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. I completed a four-year degree in three years saving thousands of dollars. I should be stoked, but in all actuality I feel like I've been going through an identity crisis.
When I started college, I started a new chapter of life. I left everything I had ever known: My home state, my family and friends. I uprooted and embraced a whole new culture and community. It was nerve-wracking, but the beginning of an amazing adventure. My college experience has challenged me not just academically, but to grow as an individual. I have been challenged to become a leader -- to form my own ideas and opinions and voice them with confidence. I have been empowered -- by friends who came to know and understand me and believed in me even more than I believed in myself; by professors who encouraged me to think critically, to never settle and made sure to sear the idea into my mind that as long as I worked hard and gave honor to where it was due, I could look back on my life without regret.
I laughed when reading an entry from my journal that I wrote a couple days before graduation: "I'm sitting next to an old cup of coffee and just ate part of the sticker off an apple... how the heck am I supposed to become an actual adult?"
As I walked across the stage I met eyes with the dean. I shook his hand and he handed me the piece of paper that I worked 3 long years for. I thought about how I was being thrown out into the real world. The people who I have called my best friends were moving away. I no longer had a job. I was no longer a student and no longer part of the community I called home. It was like my whole identity was being uprooted. Maybe I had made a wrong decision in graduating early. Everything was changing and I didn't like it. It was like culture-shock. Uncertainty overwhelmed me. I thought to myself, "Have I lived out my best days?" "Is college where I peak?" "Will I just become old and boring now?" I'm sure many of us have asked ourselves these kinds of questions after reaching a milestone in our lives. Your goal is accomplished... so what's next?
The truth is: Your best days will always be yet to come. There is always something greater. There will always be another opportunity. There will always be worth-while people surrounding you. The challenge is believing this. Most of the time, opportunities will not fall into your lap. Worth-while people will not become your best friends over night. You will have to seek out adventure in order to not become a boring adult. You will have to take a risk and approach people you want to get to know. Life has never and will never be passive. I thought that graduating college was the end of something, but actually it is the beginning of a new journey, a new chapter. It always hurts to say goodbye to what is comfortable, but there is growth and opportunity in what is uncomfortable and unfamiliar.
So, cheers to uncomfortable and somewhat sucky new beginnings.
