This is a guest post by TheOrlandoScene’s Derek Brown
College is supposed to be the greatest time of your life. It is a time of discovery, fun and growth.
It can also be incredibly frightening. You’re forced into general education courses that bore you, you’re pressured to choose a major despite having no idea what you want to do, and you’re thrown into the deep end without any of your close friends to help you swim. But it’s not all bad. You’re finally out of your parent’s house and into your own place. You get to choose how to spend your time (to study or drink yourself to death? That is the question). And when you’re into your second and third year, you’ll basically have the whole college system figured out.
Via: onlineuniversities.com
But then there’s your senior year. You begin to panic because you’ve spent one too many nights out instead of hitting the books or you’ve spent too many nights in and wished you’d broken your societal sobriety. Ideas start to flood your head – What if this degree won’t get me hired? Do really even enjoy engineering? Does anyone? I should have joined more clubs. Why did I spend so much time with my girlfriend/boyfriend?
The scariest thought is that the “best” time of your life is now over and you have to move on to the nightmare of adult life.
No longer will you have the luxury of Mom and Dad’s checkbook. Soon you’ll be so money-conscious that you’ll think of ramen noodles as an elegant meal. You’ll worry about paying bills on time and actually being productive at work. In college it seemed the only thing you had to worry about was completing that seven-page paper in four hours, hoping to get a good grade. In adult life, if you mess up you get fired and there’s no grade forgiveness for that. Adulthood means being completely accountable for all your mistakes. But don’t panic. There is hope because adulthood means also being accountable for all your success.
People will no longer blame your parents’ funds for your job success or the simplicity of your major for your straight A’s. From now on, you have just one obligation (well mostly) and that’s to show up to your job and work. It might seem hard or scary because you’re not sure whether college actually taught you enough, but you’re a resourceful kid and you can figure it out. Also, you’ll soon miss all your friends still in college or at another job. The closest friend you’ll have is the perky lady in your office who has kids almost as old as you.
Though when you think about it, the worst thing that could happen is that you hate your job (just like everyone else) but the plus side is you’re still young enough to find something you love to do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep searching. In the words of Steve Jobs, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life…and the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” He encouraged, “Keep looking until you find it. Don’t Settle.”
Via: businessinsider.com
So don’t fret that your first job sucks or is nothing related to what you studied. The best part is you still have a long future ahead of you.
When you walk across that stage on graduation day just remember probably everyone else is in the same boat as you. So be proud, be afraid and be excited for a future that can be anything you want it to be.
Featured photo courtesy of: Reddit
