Now that I am so close to completing my junior year of college with only about 6 weeks remaining, I've been starting to realize my last year of college is approaching quickly. It's hard to believe that I've almost completed 6 full semesters of college with 12 years of public schooling behind me. With all of these thoughts going through my head, I've been now thinking about what life will be like after college and what the "real world" actually means.

When I was a kid, the "real world" meant working a lot and never having time to do anything else. The "real world" meant being able to do whatever I wanted, like going to bed whenever. The "real world" meant automatically having a job and people begging me to work for them. With senior year rapidly approaching, college thus far has taught me that none of this is actually true.

I have learned that, for myself personally, even though I do work a lot (and go to school), I do have a lot of free time somehow. I wake up early, get school and work done, and then have hours to myself for watching Netflix or random YouTube videos. As a kid, I literally thought you go to work, work all day, then come home at night and go straight to bed. Then, you'd repeat this process until the day you retire. I'm hoping that the "real world" isn't like this, and that I will still have time to do things I want to do.

I learned quickly in college that going to bed whenever I want isn't the best decision I get to make for myself. During my first semester in my freshmen year, I would go to bed extremely late at night, only to wonder why I would be exhausted the next day. I would get sick a lot, and never feel energized enough to go to my classes or get schoolwork done. In the "real world", I hope to settle down on a decent sleep schedule so that I don't get mentally and physically drained.

Lastly, the biggest joke I told myself as a kid was that people will practically beg me to work for them. I assumed that going to college and getting a degree of some sort automatically meant getting a job, and that I would never have to worry about finding a career that pays decently or treats its employees well. I learned that this is in no way accurate. I've witnessed through stories from friends and family that getting a job out of college isn't the easiest and that it might take time. Now that the "real world" is coming in basically just another year or so, I'm once again hoping finding a job is not as bad as people tell me.

Junior year is coming to a close, and in just about a year, I will be nearing graduation. I'll be approaching the "real world" pretty soon, and then I'll be able to see for myself how the "real world" really is.