The other day in class, I overheard a girl saying how terrified she was to be “in the real world” once she graduated. Interested in what she meant, I kept listening. She explained that she was scared that after college, she wouldn’t be able to find a job in her field and would get knocked on her ass pretty hard.
As I thought about it, I realized that college students generally don’t work while they go to school. Some students take four classes to have full-time status while others take five or six classes a semester to get done as soon as possible. On the other hand, I took four classes (once I took five and wanted to shoot myself in the foot) each semester while working part-time. I’ve worked since I was seventeen and don’t know anything else. I don’t know what I’d be like if I didn’t work!
Work and school are my life, but for most of my peers, they don’t know what the real world is like. They are thousands of dollars in debt because of student loans and they’re not even sure that they can work to pay them off after they graduate. Adults are spending their loans on school, but they’re also wasting it on housing, food, gas, clothing, and whatever else they need to survive, which all gets very expensive. I can only imagine how terrified these adults are.
The “real world” isn’t as terrifying as it may seem, but so many students are completely unprepared for it. Once I graduate, I have a full-time job waiting for me; I’ve been such a diligent worker for so long (I’m only 22 as of this writing, but a lot of my peers have never had any work experience) that my current workplace has offered me a job the second I graduate this year. I’m blessed and lucky for the opportunity, but I also have worked my ass off for it. I work at a law office, by the way.
So my advice to college students: if you’re scared of life after college or worried you won’t have something once you graduate, GET A JOB NOW. Back off from taking six classes and use your experience in school to get a decent part-time job. Tell them when you’re planning to graduate and let them know you’re excited to finish school so that you can become a real asset to them then. Not only will they be thrilled to know you’re loyal enough to want to move up the chain, but they’ll respect that you want to finish your education and be very supportive of your choices and changing schedule.
The real world is only as bad as you make it out to be, so make good choices and make them sooner rather than later. You’ll thank yourself for them. Believe me.
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