This one goes out to all my graduating college seniors who are entering the "real world" and have to do what they have been dreading the most for the past four years: adulting. Adulting is essentially leaving behind the simple, familiar and comfortable world of school and friends and having to transition into the world of having actual jobs and paying bills. It is a terrifying thought. Maybe it's not a real word in the dictionary, but it definitely should be.
Seniors spend the last few weeks of what was supposed to be the best times of their lives in a frantic, stressful, anxiety-filled panic about what the next stage in their life is going to be. We apply for a countless number of jobs just to be told we need more experience or they found a better fit. I'm sorry but if every job requires experience, how are we supposed to find an initial job to get that experience?? We have to perfect our resumes and our interview skills.
All on top of final papers, presentations, group projects, and final exams for our college classes. It is chaotic, to say the least. Just today, writing this, I witnessed one of my friends make a million copies of her resume on this cool professional looking paper for her grad assistant interview, only to realize halfway through that "volunteer" was spelled wrong. To say she was super stressed fixing it would be an understatement.
Some seem to have it all figured out, they are engaged, have already accepted jobs, or are going to graduate school. Then there are others, like me, who have it not figured out in the slightest. I have applied for jobs and like others, been denied because I am "not qualified enough". It is frustrating. I literally apply for any job that sounds okay that I come across.
For those of us who do not have this adulting thing figured out, many of us don't even know what we want to do for the rest of our lives. Granted, college was supposed to help us figure that out. For me, it did the opposite. I have spent four hard working years in college and still have no clue what I want to do, but I do know what I don't want to do.
Through my four years, I've had three jobs on campus, two jobs outside of campus, and two internships. From these experiences, I've learned I will never be able to work in an office for the rest of my life, customer service is worse than working in an office, and my dream internship that I was so excited to have, is the thing I now want to do the least.
Adulting is scary and for those of us preparing to enter this stage of our lives, just know that maybe you don't have it all figured out, but we are still young. We could end up having 100 different jobs before we find the one that's right and the one that clicks. We could end up doing something that changes the world, we could do a lot. We are still young and yes, we are graduating college, but we still have time to figure it all out. We have the whole world in front of us and now we have to conquer it.
