Towards the end of our college career things begin to get a little scary and a lot harder. As a senior, you have to start making a lot more adult decisions about your life and future. For example where you want to live when you move out, what you want your dream job to be, purchasing your own groceries and cooking for yourself, and the list goes on with basically anything an adult would have to do on it. We coined this as the term "adulting". Anything we have to do on our own or plan for the future is considered adulting to us now. Adulting is harder than you think it is going to be.
1. You Now Have To Pay For More Things On Your Own.
Throughout your years in college, you might be getting some help from your parents still, but it comes to a point where you start feeling guilty asking and taking money from them. This happens especially around junior and senior year. It is time to start saving your money for real now. Trust me you will want to have money saved up for when you decide it is time to move out or when you finally want to buy a car. Save as much as you can because then when your friends want to go out and do something you can say yes, but don't blow all your money in one night or weekend, remember to be smart because you are on a budget now.
2. You Have To Start Cooking For Yourself.
I just started cooking for myself this year and I love it; however, it is a lot harder than you think it will be. The hard part isn't exactly cooking, though. It is planning out the meals ahead of time, then buying the groceries that will go bad if you don't eat them right away, and then actually cooking after a long day when you are exhausted and starving. You come home and you want dinner to be made instantly, but that is not going to happen once you are off the meal plan and out of college.
3. Internship Is A Normal Work Week In The Real World Now.
We all start off as Rachel from Friends when we first start a new job, but after a while we become exhausted even though we love it. Semester internship is the definition of adulting. You now have to be in the office from 9 till 5 like a normal work week in the real world. Your body is not used to being consistently up early at the same time yet because of the inconsistency of your past college class schedules. You know you should start going to bed at a decent time now since you have to be up early and you want to be able to give your work as much attention as possible, but you are a college student and it's impossible to get to bed early. You will try though. But don't forget you are doing more still than just a regular adult job at the moment between thesis class, internship class, outside of internship work if you aren't getting paid, sports, and any clubs you might be involved in. It is a lot. You can do it though, if you love your internship like I do it won't feel like work and it will be a lot easier getting up for it each morning.
4. You Are Always Exhausted.
Between your thesis, internship, clubs, sports, and just the fact that you are a college student you are bound to be exhausted. You now work a full day almost every day and when you get home your day is still probably not over. A thesis is a HUGE thing to worry about on top of everything else. You might not have regular homework right now but your thesis is a whole other story. If it is already late past the time you wanted to be in bed at you mine as well just wind down with a glass of wine and Netflix.
5. The Real World Is Coming Fast.
It is time to start thinking about the real world. If you are a senior now graduation is going to be here before you know it. It is a scary thought. It is time to start applying and looking for jobs.You have to start thinking about where you want to live and what job is really your dream.
6. Time To Look For A Job.
It is time to start job hunting! Hopefully you have done some internships already that have led you in the right direction for what you want to do with your future. It is all about connections and getting your foot in the door. Start searching for your dream job because the real world is coming fast and you are going to need money to make it on your own. Get one of those job things!
7. Forced To Think About The Future.
The future is scary. It is hard to tell what it will be like, things never usually go as planned or how you imagined it to. There is so much to think about. Without college, you are going to be adulting at a whole new level. Right now as a senior you are in limbo, the in-between of college and starting out in the real world without the safety net. Like I said before you now have to figure out where you want to be in your career and life. You have to do more on your own. You are adulting full speed ahead now. The FUTURE is coming and there is nothing you can do to stop it, so get ready and embrace it or if you have to curl up in a ball on the floor and have a quick meltdown like Squidward.
