Floundering among piles of papers and exam reviews during midterm season makes it hard to think outside of college. We are often so focused on the “now,” that we find ourselves stuck here, in the middle of due dates and tests. With the blessed aura of spring break fading, we need to consider what we’ve learned as students — not formulas and vocabulary — but rather the experiences and life lessons that come from pushing ourselves, being stressed, succeeding, and failing.
*As a note: I am currently a junior in college, so while I am starting to think about the real world, I cannot accurately depict its (many) experiences. This article serves mainly as a speculation.*
College helps you grow as a person. Friends and family might have told you this before you took off for freshman year, and it has most likely proven itself over the year(s). Living more or less on your own is monumental. You need to budget in more ways than one: your time, your responsibilities, your priorities, and of course, your money. News flash: this doesn’t go away once you finish college. If you live with a roommate, you must share a small space and negotiate certain parts of your daily life. Working at a job requires a certain amount of space sharing, so now is a good time to practice. These skills: negotiation, responsibility, self-awareness, and learning how to handle change, are all a part of becoming an adult and living independently after leaving UMass.
College pushes our stress limits. The desire to leave college and go straight into a job or graduate school program encourages us to enroll in that extra class, maybe add a minor or a major, and take on extracurricular activities and volunteer work to boost our resumes. Along with the stress, we learn about ourselves. We discover our limits, what makes us anxious, and the coping mechanisms used to combat these feelings. Learning about ourselves at this emotional level can only benefit our experiences outside of college. That night you stayed up until 4 a.m. studying for your calculus test either really helped, or it made you sick and tired for the exam. We learn from our mistakes and we learn from our successes. College provides us with the intense environment we need to see this deeper — and sometimes darker — side of ourselves.
Starting to feel the stress not only of college, but of life after college, is totally normal. Luckily for us, the UMass community understands these feelings, and provides plenty of resources to form after-graduation plans and connections. CareerConnect is a wonderful service provided by UMass that allows students to search for jobs and internships, contact an advisor to set up an appointment, and find career advice for interviews, resume building, and researching employers. Career Services is also a great place to go on campus for walk-in revising and resume review. I recommend using the UMass Alumni online directory too, where you can get in touch with UMass alum from your major or specific college and discuss career paths.
Our time as a college student does indeed lead to stress, but allows us the opportunity to teach ourselves how to lift our heads and to be who we want to be. We must remember: college is not only a place to learn about the world, but a place to understand more about ourselves and what we want to do for the world.