To The College Seniors: You’re Almost There

I know you’re tired. I know you’re stressed. I know you’re worrying about passing that Anatomy and Physiology exam coming up. I know how hard and how late you’ve stayed up studying and stressing over exams and projects. I completely understand, because once upon a time, I felt the exact same way.

Your college years will go by in a flash, and just like our parents always used to say in high school, senior year is the most important year. It’s the year where all your hard work pays off. It’s the year when you finally get to hold that degree you’ve worked so incredibly hard for. But what it’s not is the year where you start slacking.

This is not the year where you give up. After all, you’ve gotten this far, and the finish line is just within your reach. This is not the year when you let the senioritis get a grip on you so badly that your grades and emotional and physical health start to suffer.

This is the year you buckle down and give it everything you’ve got. For some of you, you might be the first person in your family to attend and graduate college. For others, much like myself, you’ve always had a dream of going to college, graduating, and getting your dream job after you graduate.

No matter your reasons, you’ve got to keep going. All of the stress, anxiety, late nights studying, and 10+ page papers will pay off in the end. To some, a degree may be just a piece of paper, but to others that piece of paper is proof of years of hard work and dedication. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

This is only the beginning of your story. The real adventure starts after you walk across that stage: the workforce. Again, I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to keep going. The first year out of college is a big one. You’ll (hopefully) be putting your degree to good use at a job you love. For some, this may require you to move either a couple miles or a couple hundred miles away.

You will meet a ton of new faces and learn a lot of things that a college class could never teach you. You will put the skills you learned in school (and from your parents) to the test and have to make some grown up decisions (buying/renting a house, bills, buying your own car, etc.).

I guess what I’m trying to say is this: keep going. I know you can do it. And when you finally reach your goals, go and take a nap — you deserve it after all of your hard work.