So I'm actually only going to be a junior in college this coming fall, but it honestly feels like I'm going to get hit in the face by the so-called "real world" really soon.
Also, I'm just becoming a big fan of the
Thought Catalog and all their good blurbs about anything and everything.
So, I'll just leave this here for myself and for anybody else who cares.
20 Things That Will Happen When You Leave College And Meet With The Real World
1. Leaving your college dorm will not be the movie moment you expected.
There will be no sepia toned edges as you stare around your empty
room and remember everything that has happened to you over the past
three years. In reality you will be too busy packing boxes and cleaning
stains off the walls to really grasp the weight of the change that is
about to take place
2. The reality that the best three years of your life are now over
…will not hit you until some random Tuesday three weeks after
you’ve left and you’re walking past a shop and hear a song that you and
your friends danced to one night when you were hammered on tequila in
some sleazy club.
This once harmless memory will now have you fighting back tears as you
blindly stumble through crowds trying to find a safe place to fall
apart.
3. Returning to your parents house,
…no matter how temporary, will now feel like a once favourite
sweater which has inexplicably shrunk and been ripped in odd places and
now irritates your skin.
4. You will spend nights going through your contacts looking for some old friends to hang out with,
…and no one will be available because whilst you were off getting a
degree they were moving on with their lives and the sad truth is that
everyone moves on and moves apart.
5. Your family will fail to realise that in your time at college you managed to be a fully functioning human being
…who was capable of living their own life and making their own
decisions, no matter how you try to show them this, they will persist in
treating you like a 16-year old once again.
6. You will be devastated by the realisation that lying in bed
eating cheetos and watching Gilmore Girls is not an acceptable way to
spend your day.
7. Despite your ardent determination to not settle for any job that isn’t related to your degree in some way,
…you will inevitably end up waiting tables in a local restaurant
after you realise getting a job in your degree field is akin to catching
a leprechaun.
8. You will be baffled by the fact that most people only go out once
a week, and instead prefer to sit in at night and watch Newsnight.
Where the hell did all the two-for-one shot offers go? And why is no one up for “Just one drink”?
9. You will gain five pounds due to comfort eating because it’s the only way you can deal with all these crazy changes.
You will then lose three pounds after setting yourself a crazy
ambitious exercise regime to fill all your free time not spent studying
(read: partying).
10. You will quickly lose touch with those people from college that
you swore blind one drunken night that you would keep in touch with.
It’s not that you don’t have the time to contact them; it’s just that
you don’t know what to say to them now that the common ground you
shared is no longer there.
11. When people ask you what you do,
…your safety net will soon become, “Well I’m in between jobs right now because I’ve just finished my degree.”
12. You will also quickly learn that people in the working world
don’t really care what you studied or where you went to college,
…what they hear when you talk about tough exams is that you were
getting drunk on watered down vodka and living off baked beans for the
last three years whilst they have been holding down a full time job and
trying to cope with their mortgage payments.
13. Your priorities will change.
You will sacrifice a night out to be able to afford the train fare to
that promising job interview. An apartment in the right area will take
precedence over an apartment with a table big enough for beer pong.
14. You will make different friends, ones who have real life worries
instead of “OMG, Donna kissed Gerry last night and Tina totally lost
it!”
And you will find yourself grateful for this.
15. You will invest in business suits and pencil skirts
…and you will feel majorly out of your comfort zone wearing them,
until one day you wake up and put on your office clothes, catch yourself
in the mirror and think: “Hey, I look good!”
16. Now that you no longer carry the status of student,
…which seemed oh so cool at the time, you will find people treat you with more respect.
17. Eventually, after three months of viewing the kind of apartments
that belong in a horror movie, you will find the perfect place for you.
Moving into your own place will give you back the freedom you lost
when you left college and you will spend your first night in your new
place just wandering around touching thing thinking ‘This is mine now.’
18. Having your own place again
…means days spent in your underwear watching a Mad Men marathon is
now achievable, but somehow you will never quite find the time to do
this, you will be too busy doing productive things like meeting new
friends for coffee or redecorating your bedroom.
19. Your parents stop dropping around food parcels and commenting that you need to find a better job,
…instead you actually overhear them describing you to one of their colleagues with a definite hint of pride in their voice.
20. One day, whilst filling out your tax returns or watering your herb garden
…or some other twenty-something activity, you will hear the same
bad pop song that you and your friends danced to whilst hammered on
tequila in a sleazy club way back when, and you will smile at the
memory, and realise how much you’ve changed for the better
via Thought Catalog
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