Alright seniors, the time has finally come to admit to yourselves that your undergraduate careers are coming to an end. Now, many of you are probably not even thinking about graduation because, let’s face it, it’s more than six months away and just the thought of graduating and entering the real world is nauseating. But let’s be realistic here, if you are entering the job world after undergrad it might be wise to start looking now or to try and find an internship next semester that could land you a job in the future. If you are planning on going to graduate school, now is the time to start applying.
The fact that as students we are expected to take control of our lives and begin our next chapter before we close the book on our current chapter is frightening. Deciding what we want to do with our lives and what type of career we want to pursue makes us never want to leave undergrad.
Then there comes the question: Am I choosing the right path?
The right path for you now is not necessarily the right path for you in ten years. Your dream of becoming a doctor could be derailed the second you enter gross anatomy and almost pass out at the sight of cutting into a dead body. Your goal of working on the social media team for Wendy’s (because let’s face it, their twitter feed is amazing) could show you that you are not as quick on your feet and witty as you might think.
Questioning whether or not you are choosing the right path is normal. Having a total freak out about your major and questioning what the point of the last four years of college were because you’re a finance major who hates finance, is okay. Trust me, we have all been there! Figuring out your future will take time. You will make mistakes and honestly, you will probably fail, get fired or quit multiple jobs before finding the career that sticks. It’s a learning process and I get that we want to have our lives figured out after college, but sometimes that’s just not the case.
Graduation being just a semester away is not something to fear because you don’t need to have your life figured out by then. Acknowledging that, as seniors, your college career is coming to an end is just the start. Simply acknowledging the facts is the first step to beginning the next chapter of your life.
So, let’s say it out loud: I am a senior, I am graduating… and it is going to be okay.
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