This Is The Naked Truth About Being A College Grad Today

Graduate college, they said, It’ll be fun, they said.

They also said that you’d walk across that stage and opportunities would start knocking and kicking and scratching at your door. That you’d smile for that cheesy handshake photograph and hold your fake diploma and all of a sudden you’d feel like (and simultaneously become) a full-fledged, accomplished, educated, real-life, ducks-in-a-row adult.

But anyone who’s graduated college in the last decade knows that’s not the reality. You don’t shrug on your cap and gown and suddenly feel responsible, suddenly know how to file taxes and pay off loan debt. You don’t finish your last final and suddenly realize what you’re doing with your life. You don’t even know what you’re doing for the next six months.

If you’re one of the lucky ones, you’ve accepted a job and you’re set for the temporary now. You have some sort of plan, but without job security, without tenure, and with a highly competitive market, you’ve been trained to not trust in the permanence of anything. Cynical? Maybe. Truth? Definitely.

Here’s the harsh reality about being a college grad right now: you’re caught in limbo. Suddenly, you are too old for college parties. That doesn’t mean you can’t attend them (by all means, do you boo boo) but suddenly your mindset has changed. You need to job hunt, you need to wake up early for the crappy part-time gig you’ve taken in the months between graduation and getting a ‘real career,’ and you have sh*t to do that doesn’t include getting wasted on a Monday night. But you want to go to college parties. You’re longing (and prematurely nostalgic) for those late nights with your best friends, taking god-awful Jagerbombs at 2AM and drunkenly texting your crush for a ride home.

Your friends are either still in school or have graduated, left town (or not), started their lives (or are pretending to start their lives) and you’re desperate for someone to pregame with, get dressed with, go out with. So you cyber-stalk all their Snapstories, wondering who they’re hanging out with, who’s all at that party, and if they’re missing you.

But then there’s that part of you that scoffs. You’ve matured, you’ve changed, and you’ve left that college scene. You had your fun: shameless flirting with that bartender, kissing and dating that adorable boy, staying up until 5AM and eating copious amounts of pizza and breadsticks, and dancing in heels with your girls until your legs pretty much fell off. You won’t forget those days, but you’re onto different things now. Obligations, priorities, mature fun, and things that you could never afford or even dream up when you were that broken, tragic college sophomore living off Ramen noodles and hot sauce.

But still, you’re caught in limbo. There’s a laundry list of expectations that you’re supposed to live up to. You’re supposed to get that job, move, work, make money, be successful, date, marry, have children. Or something along those lines. And you’re nowhere near. (Which is okay, by the way. As long as you’re trying to get your sh*t together.)

Then there’s the realization that this is it, this is life. And you’re excited about the possibilities, the places you could go, the jobs you could take, and the potential significant others that are gallivanting around somewhere on this planet, wondering about the potential you. The future is limitless. But terrifying.

You’re caught between the familiar and the new, the comfortable and the unknown. There’s the person you’ve been for the last four years, and then there’s this new you—this post-grad you, this adult you—Are you the same person? Suddenly changed? A mix of both?

The post-grad world is strange. You’re not sure who you’re expected to be, and not really sure who you want to be. You’re trying your best to figure it out, to get that dream job, to find a place and a home and a future to claim as your own.

But the naked truth about graduating college is that it’s not this paved, golden road.

Yes, your education is valuable. And yes, you have a world of possibilities at your fingertips. But that doesn’t make it easier. Graduating college, just like being in college, is another journey. And with any journey, you need faith, perseverance, hard work, a map, and your heart for when you throw your map out the window.

You’ll make it eventually. It just takes time. And a period of crappy, rough, who-am-I months. But at least you’re not living on Ramen and Tabasco anymore, right?