From the first day of kindergarten to the last day of college, people tend to spend at least 17 years of their lives attending school. What happens when it’s all over? The answer is “post-grad life.” It’s the life that those 17 years of schooling has prepared you for, and the life that you’ll be taking completely in your own hands. But let’s slow down the pace. For someone like me — a senior in college who’s beginning to fill out graduation applications, while stressing out about getting a “big girl” job — I continue to remind myself that I have a few months left.
Graduation is quickly approaching, and I have nothing planned or figured out yet. You’d think I’d be stressing out and feeling frustrated, but that’s the opposite of what I’ll be doing. The last year of college should be the best. It’s the final year to do the things that wouldn’t be considered acceptable in the “adult world.” These last few months, I get the luxury of hanging out with my friends 24/7.
For four years, I’ve been in an independent environment, surrounded by free-spirited individuals and able to do work on my own time. Once I leave, you’d expect there to be a bit of sadness, and difficulty in adapting to my original home environment (or wherever I end up afterwards), but I can say, I’m excited to take on the next chapter of my life. It’s never easy preparing for it, but from conversing with former students, who’ve handled the change, I’m beginning to think that I’ll be OK.
Sasha Fekula, a recent graduate of SUNY Geneseo, admits that the last few months of college were stressful because of all the work she needed to do in order to graduate. However, she believes that everything works itself out and that having fun and soaking up the experience is worth the stress.
Since graduation, Fekula has been treating her post-grad life as if it’s a regular summer off from school, minus the part where she goes back. Because she lives at home, she’s had to adjust to living with her parents again. That involves doing chores and keeping them updated on where she’s going, how long she’s going to be out for and who she’s hanging out with at 2 in the morning. But the biggest adjustment for Fekula has been that she isn’t surrounded by people all the time anymore.
“There’s a lot more alone time, as well as time spent at work with coworkers instead of friends,” Fekula said.
Adjusting to something new is never easy. Whether it’s with a new job, relationship or life without classrooms and professors, change will always be scary. For myself, learning how to keep my composure and remembering that even though my one and only goal is to actually make it to graduation, I’m willing to take in every second of my current life.
“My biggest advice would really be to enjoy the last months as a college student. Going into the ‘real world’ is scary, but I think that it’s so much more worth it to make the most of your last year at school. Everything else will work out as long as you send out millions of job applications,” Fekula said.
APN 