Being a senior in college comes with this overwhelming feeling of excitement, kind of like the first time you went to Six Flags and rode Raging Bull front row. Mixed with anticipation, kind of like freshman year homecoming when every 15-year-old girl was worried about if the cute boy from her bio class would ask her to the dance. Mixed with fear, kind of like when the teacher calls on you to answer a question when you’ve been doodling Rugrats cartoons in your notebook for the past 30 minutes, except way more intense.
Just the thought of applying for jobs and entering the world as an adult can make any twenty-something want to hide under a blanket and avoid it for awhile. It’s an intimidating process, there’s no doubt about that, plus you probably have no idea where to start. Your LinkedIn profile hasn’t been updated for at least 6 months, the hardest task at your current internship is remembering coffee orders and there are hundreds of emails from job websites piling up in your inbox.
You’ve noticed this paralyzing fear in the back of your mind that your job hunt will be unsuccessful and your part-time barista job will turn into a full-time lifestyle. You’re second-guessing your major and you’re considering grad school just for the sake of delaying this process a few more years. It doesn’t help that you’re thinking everyone around you has it figured out when in reality they are just as lost as you are.
Don’t get so caught up in what everyone else is doing. Go ahead and update your LinkedIn profile, learn from your internship experiences and open up those job emails. Take this applying period in chunks and don’t worry so much. You won’t be a twenty-something forever, so at this point, relax, have fun and enjoy the wild ride of adulthood.