Life Lessons after College

Considering that you’re reading this, it’s safe to say congrats! You’ve made it! Or you’re really close to the finish line.

Add graduating from college to your resume or list of accomplishments, there is no doubt that it’s well deserved. But what do you do now?

I’m still relatively fresh out of college but there are some things I’d like to share with everyone. I have a few heads-up about life after college.

Brace for impact, some of these lessons suck.

 

Welcome to the real world

Some will say that this is obvious but let’s emphasize it once again – college is not the real world!

Your college reputation means nothing once you’re done with your final exam. 

As soon as you start looking for jobs you’ll realize how much your degree is actually worth in the real world. Of course, if you’re an astronaut or a physicist, I highly doubt that you’ll have any issues, but we, the commoners or should I say mortals, we experience some crazy c*ap.

Big companies don’t care about how much effort you’ve put in, they don’t really want to see your GPA, they just want to see how they can exploit you so that you can make the maximum amount of money for them. I’ve been through dozens of interviews and 90% of companies act like that. You are the small guy and they are the big guys. 

Prepare your pride for a ground pound. It’s about to get bloody.

 

You’ll lose friends

Let’s face it, promising to keep in touch at the end of the semester isn’t enough for your friendships to stay alive.

Many people move, many people find jobs that completely annihilate their character and some just don’t give a damn. So, prepare for a slight decrease in the number of your friends. However, if you really want to keep things intact with some of your friends, do know that it’ll take you twice the effort to do that.

You’ll have to come up with new ways of communication and you’ll have to make some sacrifices when it comes to your time. But trust me, it’s worth it. Good friends don’t come around easily.

 

You’re on your own

Okay, I’ll admit, this can be a bad thing or a good thing. Once you’re done with college, you have to figure out your own direction in life.

Bear one thing in mind though, you can’t rely on your parents anymore. That ship has sailed. You are now a perfectly capable person that has to make a living.

Okay, some majors don’t exactly provide you with that but who cares? You care and you have to figure it out. Don’t be a burden to your family, settling with a ‘bad’ job, for the time being, isn’t tragic. At least not until you find that one job that you’ve been dreaming of.

 

Your degree isn’t enough

Oh, boy, did this one hurt… When I graduated I thought how my degree would open hundreds of doors for me and how I would get showered by job offers and whatnot. Nope, that won’t fly. At least not if you’re not a programmer with straight As.

Your diploma doesn’t mean anything if you don’t do something with it. In most cases, the degree itself is not enough and you’ll have to obtain more knowledge and learn new skills. Nowadays employers look for skills and experience, a degree is nice but not essential. Bear that in mind.

 

If you still don’t have it all together, don’t panic

Look, it’s perfectly fine not to have it all together yet. Just because you’ve graduated doesn’t mean that your life is sorted out now.

There isn’t a person in this wide world that has everything sorted out in their life perfectly. And that cannot happen at once. Of course, it would be nice to go out all the time, work out and still make lots of money but that simply isn’t reality. At least not in the beginning.

Getting things together is a gradual process, be patient.

 

Conclusion

Cheer up, you’ve done something awesome, you’ve graduated. And yes, life won’t be as awesome as everyone thought but it’s still nice. Hang in there and fight. There is no easy way out.

All photos were downloaded from pixabay.com. 

This is one of my old articles. It's used as the first post on my new blog.