We are all familiar with the Sunday scaries but what about the senior scaries? While there is a lot to look forward to throughout senior year, it is also a time of change and uncertainty that can lead to feeling overwhelmed.
Throughout college, people always said to me “You will be a senior before you know it!” and while I knew that the time would feel like it went quickly, I still cannot believe that I am a second semester senior. One thing I was not prepared for though was how many people start asking you questions about your plans for after graduation, if you are going to grad school, and whether you have a job lined up yet. Only once people started asking me these questions did I start to get the senior scaries.
I quickly realized that I do not know what I want to do after graduation, and I thought that I needed to already know exactly what I am going to do. It sunk in that my life will not be the same as it has been for the last four years. College graduation is more scary than high school graduation as the next step from high school was college, but the next step from college could be anything. However, once I started talking to my friends and people in my classes, I realized that so many people do not know what they are going to do after graduation. Knowing that other people were in the same place as me, definitely comforted me and made me realize that it is normal. There is a lot of pressure to have everything figured out as soon as you graduate but I have learned a few things:
- You have time
- You do not have to have it all figured out yet
- This process is a journey – where you start will not be your final destination
These points help to remind me that I will figure out where I am meant to be and that there is not a rush to have everything figured out already. Everyone has their own path – some people go to grad school, some go traveling, and some go straight into full time jobs while others have the summer off to relax after graduating from college. There is no right or wrong choice and we will all figure out what the right step for us is in time.
