Fall semester is upon us, and for those of us graduating this semester, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. For the past however many years you’ve been in school, you’ve experience fall semester and then winter break before beginning spring semester. This year winter break won’t be followed by spring semester. This year, at the end of the semester, you will walk across stage and be handed your diploma.
While many of your friends may have walked across the stage in May, leaving you to watch from the stands, your time is quickly approaching.
There are feelings of excitement, and also the terrifying feeling of the future. For many of us, the future holds the unknown. For the last however many years of your life, all you have known is school. Yet in December, after you walk across that stage, you will be done with school.
Many of your classmates will enter the workforce after graduation. Some of them may already have jobs lined up, or will have final interviews for jobs throughout the semester. There are those who will not find a job immediately graduation, and will instead find part-time jobs to make ends meet.
Your classmates will be quickly placed into groups, those with jobs after graduation and those who do not. Professors may speak the praises of your classmates who have job offers at large firms. Do not allow this to worry you, your job offer is out there waiting for you, you
Many others will continue onto graduate school. Some will start in January, while others will not start until the fall. Law school is also an option for some. Many will decide that their bachelor degrees are not enough and that they must continue on to receive their masters.
But you, what are you doing? This a question that you have probably been asked in the past, but now you will be asked it with more seriousness. In the coming weeks and months, those around you will begin to ask what your plans are for after graduation.
I am here to tell you that there is no right answer to this question. The right decision does not have to fall into either the category of going to work at a full-time position in your field, or continuing on the graduate school. It is perfectly acceptable to say that you do not know what your plans are for after graduation.
Do not worry too much about your plans for after graduation. Instead, enjoy your last semester of undergrad. Pull all-nighters studying for an exam, go out Friday night with your friends. Find that balance between school and free time that we all strive to find. As hard as it may seem to do now, it will only get harder in the future.
Continue the hard work of your past years, and know that eventually you will be able to answer the question of what are you doing after graduation.
