From what I’ve heard, the "adulting" world is going to be a very scary place.
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There’s something scarier though, in my opinion. I'd call it the “pre-adulting,” world. Yeah. That sounds about right. I’m currently occupying the pre-adulting world.
I’m a senior in college. Very soon, the fall semester will be coming to a close. After that, my last winter break will speed by. Then, the spring semester will start and finish.
During that time period, my last ~spring break~ will come and go; my last set of finals will painfully linger as long as they can until I somehow manage to power through them.
After all that (assuming I pass those finals), I’m going to wear a gown and a fun hat that I’m going to decorate in a dope Pinterest way, and I’m going to walk across a stage to receive a really expensive piece of paper that I’ve worked really hard over these past four years to earn.
These will all be noteworthy events, no doubt, but predictable ones. These are not the scary “pre-adulting” events I’m alluding to.
I’m not scared to graduate (per say). I’ve got the mechanisms of that down to a fundamental standpoint: wear a hat, hear a name, walk forward, don’t trip, shake the hand, shake other hand, maybe shake another hand, obtain a paper, take a picture, walk off the stage, don’t trip, find a seat, throw a hat, etc.
After the graduation event ends, though, that’s where my plans are a little less predictable, thus making them absolutely “pre-adultingly” terrifying.
There will probably be a party thrown by my parents to celebrate my undergraduate survival, during which each and every one of my relatives and family friends will grace me with an opportunity to answer the same question over and over again:
“What’s your plan?”
Each time this is asked, I’m not sure how I’ll respond. Maybe I’ll have a sweet job lined up at that point that I don’t know about yet. That’d be cool. Maybe I’ll have written a couple of novels by then and have my life somewhat figured out. These are all idealistic events. I’d be super pumped if either of these situations became my reality.
I don’t know, though. That’s the scary thing. I don’t know. That being said, hypothetically if I were to graduate tomorrow and have to answer someone who asks what my plan is, I would literally just be like "I don’t know. I have no idea what I want to be doing next fall, or next month, or next week, or in a day from now, or even right now. What am I doing right now? Where is the cake? My mom said she would get me a turtle shaped cake. I’d like to eat that now. That is my current plan. Do you want to go find it with me? Bring the champagne."
I know I’m not the only one feeling like this. We soon-to-be grads have a lot to stress out about in terms of transitioning between our pre-adulting and adulting worlds, and each of us has a different level of preparedness for the said stressful transition.
Some of us are more stressed out than others are. Maybe we see those others who are more prepared for the adulting world than we are, and consequently freak ourselves out. We’re like holy guacamole, real life is about to happen. We’re feeling like we’re on the bottom of the food chain in terms of being prepared to build these ambiguous looming shadows known as “careers” and “plans” that all our relatives keep asking us about.
Maybe some of us messed up somewhere along our paths through college, and have had to take some steps back before continuing our journeys toward graduating. Or maybe some of us decided to change paths completely after realizing the original paths we were on weren’t the ones for us.
Maybe some of us are too good at too many things, and just haven’t decided on our favorite strengths yet, or perhaps have yet to even discover them.
Maybe some of us are just standing at a mental epicenter of potential paths that all lead toward different career building points, upon which we can kind of, sort of, see ourselves beginning to take steps toward building successful professional lives.
I know it’s hard to decide where to start building a career. Up until a couple weeks ago, I felt like I was stuck in a mental fetal position, basking in the scary fact that I really have zero clue where I’ll be, or what I’ll be doing, in a year from now, and that I’m potentially going to have to remind a lot of my relatives of that fact over and over again (before and after a likely turtle shaped graduation cake is located).
I’m writing this article because I want to spread awareness about a particular resource that’s desperately needed in the lives of people like me (i.e. unprepared pre-adulting potentially freaking out people).
I'm talking about WayUp. It’s a job and internship website for 20-something-year-olds (like undergraduate students, post-grads, etc), that can help us find places to start building careers. Further, WayUp can help you make money while you continue looking for a starting point, and/or develop skills that allow you to begin building where you’ve realized you want to build.
Basically, WayUp is a social media platform for jobs. Thousands of companies post jobs on it (one of those companies, for example, being Google). Whether it's an internship you're looking for, a full/part time job, or just a quick gig to make some extra cash, I guarantee WayUp will have something of interest to you that you're definitely qualified to apply for. Another plus: signing up doesn't mean you'll get bombarded by unwanted e-mails and/or promotions.
The process on WayUp goes both ways. You get to browse jobs, and companies get to browse through potential applicants, like you. Once you sign up, you'll be surprised to see how many companies request for you specifically to apply for their positions.
In addition to the site's job locating features, WayUp also offers valuable resources like resume building tips, guides for professional development, and so much more. I could rant for days about how this site has helped me. After I signed up, I got my first job within a few weeks, and it was wonderful. From my experience, I believe WayUp can guide people like us step by step into the realms of adulthood.
I think we soon-to-be grads need to be reminded that it's okay to feel unprepared for the adulting world right now. If you're feeling like you don't know where to start in terms of preparing yourself for the scary transition, your first step might be just clicking here and setting up a profile on WayUp. It takes 30 seconds of your life, and Bippidy Boppidy Boo, you've got a whole stream of awesome ways to transform your resume and your wallet.
We've got this, guys! Woot woot. Adulting world, here we come.
