Graduating From College is Exhausting Work.

For those of you who haven’t yet graduated from college (which I presume is the vast majority of you – this is a college women’s magazine after all), I can tell you that the act of graduating from college has some surprising effects. Yes, graduation is fun and filled with excitement. Yes, it is filled with posed pictures and cute sundresses. Yes there is generally good food and sometimes great champagne. Despite all of this, more than anything else, graduating from college will WEAR YOU OUT. 

Think about it – your family comes to town to visit, which is wonderful, except that EVERYONE’s family has also come to town to visit and to see graduation. This means that what would normally be a fun family trip turns into a battle for restaurant reservations and a storm of hotel bookings. In addition, your family is presumably new to the area (especially if you went to college out of state) and expects you to be their tour guide, travel agent, host, and entertainer for a week. All of this comes together with the fact that your college becomes your own during your four years there and the combination of the mass parental invasion of your campus with the knowledge of your impending mandatory exit from your college home is enough to make a girl crazy. 

You also have to account for the fact that I have a tomboy of a 6-year-old sister who has little patience for thing like ceremonies, church services, and doing anything other than kicking a ball and playing in the dirt. 

This photo really sums up this feeling for me. Stephanie and I are both frantically looking in opposite directions trying desperately to round up family members. 

So if you’ve already graduated, congratulations on your achievement and on staying sane. If you have yet to graduate, well, the best I can say is good luck.