Since the age of four, I have been friends with this girl. I still remember the first time that I met her. I remember the CD's we passed back and forth in grade school, the crafts we worked on together in Girl Scouts and the countless hours we spent watching Disney movies.
We grew together and apart many times throughout the years, but we always remained aware of one another. Having similar interests keeps you relatively close, especially in a small town high school.
It was a fluke, however––when I sat down next to her in Media Law at Oakland University.
Turned out, after all these years of trying to figure ourselves out, we were heading down a similar path: Journalism.
After marveling at the sheer irony of the matter, we got to talking.
What had we both been up to?
What did we love and hate about college?
What were we going to do next?
Naturally, we grew close again. It was easy to talk, having so many classes and homogeneous goals.
This past year, my friend graduated, heading out into the abyss and bravely seeking opportunity. I stayed behind, grumpily accepting my fate of struggling through one last semester alone. Familiarity is comfortable. I liked being comfortable.
After accepting a job that will surely lead her to a career, my friend and I speak on occasion, but nowhere near as frequently as we used to when we shared a classroom. She became an adult, and I stayed a college student. She knows the truths about the world after you get that unreachable piece of paper.
I recently caught up with my triumphant confidant for a drink (cause who doesn't need one by Wednesday, am I right?) and learned that the post-graduate life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
College coming to an end is both the best and worst moment of a young adult’s life.
Post-College depression is a sadness that sets in after you realize all the good times of college are now officially over. No more drinking at two in the afternoon for no reason. No more meeting new people in every class and making friends so easily. After college, the time for real world responsibilities sets in. You’re no longer practicing for the game, you’re in it.
That, for many college graduates, is a very scary concept.
Many reputable news
sources
have covered
this topic, concerned about the fate of Millennials.
Brooke Donatone and Slate of The Washington Post writes, "People in their 20s no longer view themselves as adults. There are various plausible reasons for this, including longer life spans, helicopter parenting and fewer high-paying jobs that allow new college grads to be financially independent at a young age."
Psychology Today actually calls this challenge facing millennials a "mental health crisis." The article goes on to say, "Rates of anxiety and depression have similarly sky-rocketed in the last few decades. A 2013 survey of college students found that 57 percent of women and 40 percent of men reported experiencing episodes of “overwhelming anxiety” in the past year, and 33 percent of women and 27 percent of men reported a period in the last year of feeling so depressed it was difficult to function."
The Huffington Post states that if you know and are concerned about any recent graduates, these are the symptoms you should be looking out for: "persistently low mood and negative outlook, an inability to concentrate, a decrease in self-care and personal appearance, not getting out of bed and constantly oversleeping or consistently poor sleep, a sense of hopelessness and comments about life not being worth living, and a noticeable increase in drinking and substance use."
If you think you’re suffering from post-college depression, it’s very important to find the things in life that make you happy. Check out these tips to avoid the symptoms of post-college depression. Make the most of yourself while you can.
