Is This Real Life Now?

It’s strange to think that my life is never going to be the same again. Never again will I be living at home with my parents (hopefully) for more than a summer, and never again will life be what it was like just a few months ago.

Going to college signifies for most of us a transition into the real world. After our four years of college we will be spit out into jobs and internships and new places on our own. Although four years seems like a long time, that world will be here before we know it.

As a first-year in college, it’s hard to think about anything other than the freedom at hand. Coming from high school, college feels like heaven. We no longer have to sit at school for eight hours a day and abide by the school-determined schedules. We now have thousands of classes at our fingertips that aren’t just chemistry or biology, but astronomy and geology and the physics of music. It feels like your options are unlimited, and they pretty much are!

However, every once in a while I remember the real reason why I am here. College prepares you for the ever looming real world. I am here in order to get my degree, to help me get a job, and be successful once my schooling is over. While college also provides a fun and enjoyable environment, it has a larger purpose and that’s hard to remember sometimes!

Even though I am only a first-year, I feel as if I need to have the rest of my life figured out. I am the type of person that likes to know where I’m going and what I’m doing, and I typically do. That’s why college frightens me; I have fewer plans now for my life than I have ever had. With the prospect of the real world looming so near in the future, it’s hard to create imaginary ideas for what I want to do with my life when I know that I should now take it much more seriously. What if I don’t take the right classes, or I don’t find a major that interests me? These questions probably seem trivial to older students who have already gone through this process, but for me it seems so terrifying. I have no idea what job I want to have, let alone what I even want to study.

When I saw an opportunity to attend a panel of esteemed writers, I thought, why not? I’m interested in journalism and publishing and writing and thought it would be interesting to hear what they had to say. They continuously told us to start branching out early and making connections, and be constantly working towards what we want to do. They told us that you have to be willing to put the work in, and that we should start soon. So of course I left the panel and went right to work looking for internships and potential jobs and ways that I could start networking.

In the excitement of the panel, I spent so much time thinking about what I would do after college that I forgot about where I was and the following day. I had to bring myself back down to earth and remind myself to do my homework that was due in two days, and not worry too much about work for four years in the future. Although it is important to know why we are here, there is definitely a balance between appreciating the now and preparing for the future. College is inclusive of both, and no matter what you do while here, it should help you be able to make decision for the future.

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