Okay, so I know I’m only 22, and parentals (and people in their 30s) may be rolling their eyes, but for just one year out of college, I feel old dude.
After college, you more than leap in years old — you will feel this huge change from being a student to a real person. After the first few weeks after graduation, you feel in total shock. And every time that I’ve tried to relive those college experiences I loved so much, I end up feeling SUPER OLD.
How I feel…
In the post college world, you get home on a Friday night from work and you are freaking exhausted. The thought of showering, putting together an ensemble and then drinking your body weight in alcohol all of the sudden becomes strangely unappealing. All you really want to do is put on your PJ’s, make a hot cup of tea and watch a corny rom-com and fall asleep by midnight.
However, for me, this thought is revolting. Nothing and I mean NOTHING, kept me and my friends from going out on a Friday evening during those college years. Even in the summer months, if I was waitressing, I would change after work and still meet my friends no matter what. Now, it is hard to find people to go out with week after week on a Friday night. So even if you are feeling up to it, your friends may not be and then what are you going to do? Sit at home. But then of course when you do end up staying in, much to the appreciation of your tired body, you start to feel like such a loser. Flash to my girlfriend and I are sitting on the couch in sweats, scarfing down pizza about to start a movie we have seen fifty times, and my middle age mother is showing us her outfit for her night out on the town. Depressing, much? I may be a tad exaggerating here; not every Friday ends up that way, but with the cold winter months it feels like it sometimes.
Then there is the complete other extreme, where you are going out four nights a week again like you did in college and your body and new lifestyle can’t seem to handle it. Christmas/New Year’s “break” was a fun one, but equally exhausting. I have some friends who are fifth years back home for a few weeks. My brother and the younger students were all home for a month from their respective colleges. The holidays bring festive times and before you know it you are out and about, drunk on a Tuesday night with work in the morning. I haven’t drunk this much in a confined amount of time since spring break. And boy, am I tired. I mean it was a blast, but now that we are “adults” you can’t sleep all day and eat horrible take out to recover during your precious weekends. You have things to do, errands to run, things to buy, people to see, family obligations, etc. It is rough.
After New Year’s reality sets in and you are back at work, it’s hard to get back to the normal routine. And the normal routine, as an “adult”, means you have all these decisions to make. For example, one of my most difficult decisions came from the option of benefits at work. There are literally 5,000 pages of information, 10 different options of plans and they are all a few dollar difference. How do I know if I will break my leg and possibly need this blah, blah insurance? I’m not old enough to know such things!! It’s so confusing.
Then there’s the life insurance and who you want your beneficiary to be. I don’t really want to be thinking about my death at the age of 22, not to mention the fact that all I really have of value is a couple grand, a sick DVD collection, pretty big wardrobe, about 50 pairs of boots and epic pictures since I am the paparazzi of my friends and family. I feel like there are a lot of things we have to think about now that we didn’t when we were students.
Fortunately Obama made the law for the medical insurance (we “young adults” can stay on your parents’ plan until the age of 26) so I don’t have to figure it all out now, but most dental insurances won’t cover you under your parents if you aren’t a student. Then there’s the whole moving out thing, rent, utilities, car insurance, the gym — all of these things that our parents took care of or at least helped us figure out every step of the way.
I’m not going to lie, I do enjoy not having to attend class and do homework and read a million pages in one night and write 25-page papers and I’m excited about future possibilities now that I am out of school, but I have this looming feeling that I am getting old. Not “old” in the sense where I should start worrying about wrinkles and my breasts dropping to my feet, I’m talking about “old” in the sense where you can’t get away with skipping work all the time because you’re tired or staying out late four nights in a row without some repercussions. I can’t even imagine when we all start having kids. AHHH. I’m starting to miss the days where all I had to worry about was how to do my hair the next morning and whether or not I would have the nerve to stare directly into my crush’s eyes and smile or completely ignore him and let him come to me. If I only knew…