Seniors, are you ready to graduate? Do you have a career lined up for you the day you leave here? Is your future all planned out and ready to go?
If so, that’s awesome. Congratulations. If not, we’re in the same boat.
It’s important to know that it’s okay not to have everything figured out yet. A LOT of people are in your shoes. We don’t have to know everything just yet, we’re still young. Most of us are still figuring things out, like who we are, what we like to do and how we want to spend the rest of our lives. And for most of us, we will change it a couple of times before we figure everything out. So take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay.
What I have learned these past few months is that most people aren’t going to graduate college with an amazing career lined up for them. Most people still don’t know what kind of job they want when they step foot off campus and a good majority of students have no clue where they’re going to live next year.
Personally, I’m not quite sure what’s in store for me when I graduate this coming May. I know what I like to do, which is write, but I’m not sure quite yet what I actually want to do with that skill.
This past week, when I was registering for classes for the very last time, it’ struck me that not one of the classes I took over the course of these past four years had made me decide exactly what I was going to do when I leave college. But, each class has shaped me into a better writer and helped me gain the essential skills I need to be a successful one when I graduate.
Parents are always asking me, what are your plans after graduation? I tell them, “I’m still figuring it out”, and they respond with a half-hearted smile, acting as if I’m going to fail in adulthood. And although this used to scare the heck out of me, it doesn’t bother me anymore. I know that both of my parents took a while to figure out what they truly wanted to do, so it’s okay if I don’t know right away either.
Our whole lives we have been told what classes to take, with the exception of a few, where to live (either at home, in a residence hall or somewhere on campus), and what to do (get good grades, get a part-time job, join clubs, etc.). Now, all of the sudden, we are expected to make every single choice on our own.
In my opinion, society didn’t do the best job of preparing us for this big leap into adulthood.
So, if you’re like me, it’s okay to not know. It’s okay to not be prepared for this big future ahead of you. Because it’s a BIG future, which means you have a lot of time to figure things out, not just a couple of months. Let’s just focus on one thing at a time. You’re graduating from college, and what an amazing accomplishment that is! You’ll figure the rest out in time.