As graduation day (or as I like to call it, Doomsday) rapidly approaches, a lackluster cloud continues to follow me around during my last days as a college student. It’s so depressing…my keyboard is practically sopping wet with tears as I write this.
But of course, the new and exciting opportunities and experience that are about to unfold do not escape me either. It truly is a bitter, sweet transition. Mostly bitter. But I digress There’s something to be said about being ready to graduate but not ready to be a real person (aka post-grad, aka adult). I’m sure the other soon-to-be grads can relate. It’s an epiphany that behooves me to reflect on 5 reasons why I think this to be true.
1. Tired of trynna’ cook for m’self….
One can only eat so many packs of Ramen noodles and pop tarts before the body’s lack of real nutrients is too severe to ignore. Oh yeah, and after 4 years, I’m consciously uncoupling with Canyon Pizza. I finally figured out why that ish is a dollar a slice. For those of us who do not have any post-graduation plans yet, i.e., jobless suckers, it’ll be nice to have some real home-cooked meals amidst our misery for having to be home in the first place. Good food will soften that blow…hopefully.
2. Tired of the school part of school…
So, after 16 years of classes and homework and school projects, I think it’s safe to say I’m tapped out on this whole academics thing. I know, I know, you can’t put a limit on knowledge. But you can put a limit on group projects, which happen to be the bane of my existence, start-of-semester icebreakers, and research papers on topics that bear no importance or interest to me. Now, all the other aspects of college, other than the whole going to class part, I’ll miss more than One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl combined.
3. Ready to start making money
Whether it’s cause you’ve been offered the job of your dreams with a salary to match or you’re going home to your usual summer job, there will (hopefully) be some sort of stable cash flow. Being a broke college student gets old real quick. I suppose the money we start making post-graduation should start going to our “real life” fund as opposed to our bar fund. What a bleak realization…
4. Loans? What are loans?
Oh that’s how I’ve been managing to go to this awesome school for four years. I think I speak for most when I say tuition isn’t something the average college student thinks about throughout their time here. And then, 6 months post graduation, it hits you like a ton of bricks (make it 2 tons for us out-of-staters) when you’re expected to start paying back those loans. But I guess ya can’t put a price on #memories, can ya?
5. Not ready for post-grad life norms
In college, it’s socially acceptable to nap in the middle of the day and to watch both seasons of House of Cards on Netflix in one day in the middle of the “work week”. It’s socially acceptable to “day long,” whereas outside of college-life, I’m pretty sure that’s just considered alcoholism. You can wear sweatpants everywhere and no one will judge you and order pizza and cheesy bread to your apartment at 2 am every weekend. I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think these things will be as widely accepted outside of our little University bubble.
Let’s milk these last couple weeks as undergrads and give it all we got because if there’s two things I’ve learned from the past 4 years, it’s that time is fleeting and, for lack of a better expression, these are the best days of our lives.