As I creep closer and closer to graduation day, I feel more and more unready for the real world. Graduating college means starting your career, and starting the rest of your life.
I recently told a friend how I felt really stressed about graduating. I explained how I didn’t feel like I belonged at Park anymore because I should have my life figured out by now. But at the same time, I don’t feel like I belong in the real world of adulthood yet. He said, “Paige, you know what I call that? Lost in translation.”
He graduated last year and knew exactly the feeling I explained. We feel out of place when we are with the group of friends we’ve built for the last 4 years of our life. But the next step of our life is so uncertain that we know for sure that the real world is not the place we belong yet. We are lost while our life is translating from college to adulthood.
As I try to figure out what my next step will be, I feel the stress building up. One certain thing about life is, it doesn’t stop to let you figure things out. At this point in my life, time is my enemy.
Now, I’m not saying I am not ready to begin my adult life. I am so excited to embark on the new adventures I will surely have. The part that scares me is the uncertainty of it. Right now, what happens to me in January is unknown. For my whole life, I’ve always known what’s coming next, and usually that is school. This will be the first year I don’t return to school, and the fact that I don’t know where I will be, frankly it terrifies me.
As I mentioned before: time stops for no one. Although I am scared of what happens next, I am excited. I know I will figure out where I am supposed to go in life, and maybe the uncertainty of it is just what an organized, control freak like me needs. I may feel like time is my enemy, but it could be my best friend in disguise, trying to kick start my goals in life.
