Welcome back to another edition of the things I learned in college. Graduation is less than 30 days away and I’m freaking out both mentally and physically. I cannot believe that I am leaving my 2nd home soon and have to face the real world soon and be on my own and pay for rent, health insurance, dental insurance, car insurance and god knows what else. I am not ready to leave the good life. College is really the best 4 years of your life and I know that people say that about high school but they are wrong. College is the best 4 years. College gives people the chance to move away from home and live on their own and re-invent themselves and meet new people.
College is also the time that you have to learn to be a semi adult very quickly. No longer are you living at home, having mom do your laundry, have meals cooked for you, or having your parents remind you of things and your teachers keep reminding you when things are due. When you get to university that ALL changes. You are forced to live on your own, clean your room, clean the bathroom, cook for yourself and maybe the worst one of all is doing your own laundry. But let’s not forget about the fact that you have to keep track of a budget and make sure you don’t run out of money in the first week. With all this freedom becomes all this responsibility that you do not expect but it hits you like a ton of bricks. The hardest thing for me is keeping a budget. Once I was on my own and got a credit card to use boy was I just spending money like crazy and ordering out food, shopping all the time, getting dunkin like 6 days a week. I learned the hard way that I cannot live like that anymore. I have to save money and make wise choices for my future. Also moving off campus meant I had to learn how to pay bills and watch my electricity usage, my heat use, pay rent and clean my house. Moving off campus really taught me how to “adult” fast. The worst one was cooking, I hate cooking for myself and would rather just order food or go eat out. But cooking was something I just has to teach myself. Adulting means something different to everyone, but the one thing I can tell you is to prepare for all this change as early as you can. So start by trying to do your own laundry, or start learning some basic cooking things. Trust me coming from a girl who was not prepared at all, it will help you in the long run.