At the time, I never thought it could get worse. I was out of class for a month after a rollover car accident. I had to drop a course because the professor was not communicating with me. I was in so much pain, mentally, physically, and emotionally; I am not sure how I made it through. I thought that was the most stressful semester of my college education. I was wrong.

It is my eighth semester of college. There are 18 days until graduation. Is this real? Has it really been four years since I graduated high school?

For the last 17 years of my life, the years have been dictated by a set schedule from September to May. After I graduated high school, it was my choice to follow that set schedule for four more years.

Now that I am graduating from college, those months won’t matter. There is not a significance of “starting” in September and “ending” in May. This is a scary concept to me. Everything that I have known for 17 years is going to change. Instead of my life revolving around those eight months, it will revolve around a couple weeks of vacation every year. I will look forward to casual-Fridays where I can wear something, well, casual. Weekends won’t be jam packed with hours at a part-time job.

This sounds great, right? “How can it be stressful looking forward to this, Taylor? How can your last semester of college be so stressful when you are only taking six credits?”

Trying to find a big-girl job has proven to be the most stressful self-inflicted experience I have ever endured. In 18 days, I will have a bachelor’s degree and a whole lot of debt to pay off. I need a big-girl job to pay off that debt.

You are expected to graduate from college, apply for jobs in that field, partake in interviews, and land that dream career. You are a failure if you stay at your part-time job through the summer because “you’ll end up staying there forever.”

Think about how many other students will graduate with their Bachelor’s Degree in May 2016. Think about how many of those students will be looking to go on to get their Master’s Degree. Think about how many of those students will be so done with school and want to find that dream career. Now think about the economy and how many jobs are out there for said students. We are in competition with those who have done internships, service-learning projects, and have experience in the field. We are in competition with ourselves to prove we are worth their time.

We cannot apply for one job and expect to get an interview, either. In the last two months, I have applied to more than 40 jobs. I had one phone interview and one in-person interview out of those 40. The other 38? They either did not call or email, or sent a rejection email saying they had a lot of qualified candidates. Do you know what that does to a girl’s self-esteem? It is discouraging. Why even apply to these jobs when they won’t even consider me? More than 20 of those applications took almost two hours to complete. I am not sure about you, but I really did not have 40 hours to waste in the last two months. And to think, I could have been napping…

Last week, I accepted a full-time seasonal position from May to October. Is this job in my field of study? No. Am I going to be passionately writing for a company 48 hours per week? No. Will I gain experience and try to have fun while I am doing it? Absolutely. Accepting this job offer gave me more time. It gave me five more months to search for my dream career. It took the weight off my shoulders of the thought of staying at my part-time grocery store job.

Up until last week, I was disconnected from my family and friends. If they wanted to get lunch or hangout, I would tell them I had too much to do. I was too busy applying for jobs like a mad woman. I was “trying to graduate.” In reality, the only things separating me from my four-year degree are a few projects and papers. I might have to give up a few naps to get those done, but it is so close.

For those who will graduate in three weeks, congratulations. We did it. We survived the presentations, seemingly endless hours of papers, and mounds of homework. We are about to walk free, minus the debt repayment, of course.

For those stressing about finding a full-time job in your field of study, lower your standards. The dream career will come eventually but for now, just do something you will enjoy. Find a job that you will not loathe going to. Do anything other than the part-time job you despise going to on evenings and weekends. Find time to do those hobbies you have not been able to find time to do in the last four years, like painting, playing guitar, or reading for leisure. Learn a new hobby, maybe.

The world is your oyster, so don’t be afraid to take the first bite “naked.”