Post-Grad Life: Moving On

You really start to question your life after graduation. For most of us, up until this point we’ve always known our next plan. High school graduation led to going to college. College graduation can lead to almost anywhere. We really do have a lot of options these days from joining the Peace Corps, going on to graduate/law/medical school, to getting a job in a related field, to getting no job at all. Things really can go in any direction and that uncertainty can make the safety and security of being in school seem all the more appealing which can make moving on from undergraduate school pretty difficult. Here’s a short list of things I’ve been told or have found to help in moving on from your college days:

1. Seriously, don’t forget to go around and smell the roses (or whatever is in season around campus).
2. Don’t scoff at the idea of moving back home with your parents so you can get your bearings, save some money and maybe have that last summer vacation.
3. Keep busy. Learning never stops, think about taking up an online or community college course if you’re not enrolling in more schooling in the fall.
4. Take the long way home. If you’re like me and are moving 1,300 miles away from Florida Tech, consider making a vacation out of the trip home. There’s really no need to do a 24-hour marathon on I-95.
5. Keep in touch, but don’t live vicariously through your friends still in school. We’ve all seen those alumni that seem to spend more time hanging out and bumming around the school rather than making their post-graduate life meaningfully awesome. They’re stuck in a rut. They’re under the impression that college was the best four years of their lives and nothing will ever come close. This is really a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you think you’re leaving the best four years of your life, the rest of your life will seem to not be as fulfilling. The best years are yet to come. Remember that.

I’ve got about another 55 years, according to the OECD. Refusing to believe that these were the best four years of my life is what I’m certainly going to embrace. There’s a big wide world out there and I intend to experience as much of it as possible. This will be my last post. Thanks for following me on this journey to the real world. Stay classy, everybody!