When we start our senior year (of college or high school), adults speak as though we’ve finished a journey, like we’ve grown into the “person we are.” It’s as though they’re saying we’ve found ourselves, however I never feel like that! Every time I get to that home stretch I feel like I know myself less than ever.
Freshman year we all come in confused, a little excited and pretending we know what we’re doing. Then as sophomore year comes we become better acquainted with our surroundings, and how it relates to us. Junior year we come into our own, with two years under our belt, and just a year away from being a senior, you’re at your most comfortable and confident. Finally, senior year comes around and this place you poured your heart and soul into is just going to disappear as you jump off a cliff (again) into the unknown. It’s so scary! You don’t know what to expect, there’s applications (college or career) and real life stresses. I mean, I just got used to paying my own rent, and now I have to pay for insurance, gym membership, taxes and more – oh my!
I wish I had advice, but does anyone even know the actual answer of what to do? Our parents don’t know the right answer, our college advisers don’t know the answers, your friends or peers don’t know the answer, andI definitely don’t know the answer. This is because there is no “right” answer. People may have suggestions from experience or expertise, but there is no one correct answer, and that’s because there’s no one correct way to graduate. Some people take a year off and travel or work abroad.
Some people land their current dream job, and some people move back home to pursue other things (like grad school or still figuring things out). And do you know what? That’s okay. Whatever one you do, or even if you do something completely different that no one has ever done before, that’s fine. Do what you think will make you happy, and if it doesn’t, we’re still so young. We have time to keep changing and shifting as we reevaluate our lives until we do find what makes us happy. And that might not even last forever. Twenty years down the line you might decide you’re no longer enjoying something you loved yesterday. So change.
That’s what’s great about life, it’s not a static thing. It’s constantly changing and so are we, which we are allowed to do. So you don’t have to know who you are or what you want right now, or even if you do, it may change, and that’s what’s so unique about life: You get the chance to live it fully.