As stressful and anxiety-inducing it is to graduate and start a new chapter, I’m so excited to see what the future holds and what my next steps will bring. Though there is so much to look forward to, I know I will continue to be sentimental about graduating, friends moving away and not being able to see my friends as much during the work week well into my post-graduation life. Since I know it is going to be a huge adjustment and big change, I’ve spent my entire senior year integrating small habits and “working ahead” in order to prepare myself and make the transition as seamless as possible.
I know that my post-grad job is going to be a typical 9-5 work week and this makes for a big lifestyle change compared to my college course schedule ranging from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. I know typical 9-5’s aren’t for everyone but I’m excited to try it out and experience it for myself. I am not good at being a morning person just yet despite practicing it the last few semesters, but it is a continued goal of mine. I want to use my mornings before work to be productive by working out so I have more time after work for myself, hobbies or seeing friends. This also means that I have been working on adjusting my sleep schedule from staying up too late to going to bed early.
I didn’t try very hard to have a healthy lifestyle involving clean eating and going to the gym often during the first three years of college so I worked to rectify this in my final year. I have been finding a good workout routine and trying to go to the gym in the mornings instead of the afternoon or night. I also did not cook a lot throughout my college experience and mostly did quick frozen meals so I have been transitioning into meal planning and healthier food choices. This has been one of the most difficult changes because I generally do not enjoy cooking so it is hard for me to set aside the time needed to make healthy meals. I also wanted to become better at this to help prepare for when I need to pack a lunch for work. Most of the time, I make peanut butter sandwiches and I’m looking forward to integrating more interesting lunches into my meal planning.
Something I am surprisingly excited about is budget planning. I am so excited to have a salary and be able to start paying off student loans, get into investing and add more to my savings. I plan on making a spreadsheet so I can figure out exactly how much is going into bills and then determine how much I can put in the other categories.
I know when I am not living on campus, I won’t be seeing my friends as often so I want to be more intentional about making plans. Living alone for my senior year has already helped me so much in this regard but I’m the kind of person who forgets to reach out sometimes. I mark certain days in my calendar every couple of weeks or once a month to reach out to my friends or family since I struggle with making time and remembering on the regular.
Self-care and preventing burnout is another method I have been utilizing since I’m going to experience a huge lifestyle shift. As a criminal justice and psychology student, I practiced self-care throughout my college experience but especially as we started to talk more about violence, trauma and other emotionally draining concepts. Since my 9-5 job is going to involve working with survivors of violence, I know I am going to hear their stories and see evidence and I want to plan accordingly by making sure I take care of myself and take active steps to prevent burnout.
I’m also preparing for post-grad life by thinking about all the free time I’m going to have since I won’t be constantly working on homework after classes. I have a whole list of Kansas City-specific ideas and my books-to-read list has gotten so long. Throughout college, I have been terrible at using what little free time I had to be on the phone, scrolling through TikTok or Pinterest and I want to limit my social media and screen time so I am better at pursuing more productive and healthier hobbies.
I hope you found this article helpful in preparing for your own post-grad adjustment, or if you’re not about to graduate, you can definitely make these changes now or start thinking about what you want your life to look like after graduation.