Welcome to the most exciting time of your life. Isn’t that what everyone says? I remember hearing those words over and over again and frankly, getting frustrated. Because when I was graduating, I felt the exact opposite of excited or prepared. I felt nervous, clueless, and stressed.
But he beautiful thing about graduating is that it’s a new page for the rest of your life. It’s closing one book and opening another. It’s starting over, starting new. Take a deep breath. You will be fine.
This is the moment you’ve been waiting for, and probably simultaneously dreading since your very first lecture. It’s the moment when all the hard work finally pays off, and yet, begins all over again.
Walking across that stages means you are finally a legitimate, real-life human that is required to participate in the act of adulting on the daily.
And maybe you’re not quite ready for that yet.
But there’s so much more than the four walls you called your dorm, more than the lecture halls, the late-night study sessions, pizza runs with friends, or shots well past your bedtime. There is far more than the hands who held yours when you were young and naive. More than the promises that weren’t kept and the roadblocks you hit along the way.
Maybe you’re terrified about where to go next. Maybe you’re scared because you feel powerless and unprepared. Maybe your friends are laughing, talking about their plans after graduating. Maybe they include jobs, security, and purpose. Things you feel you lack.
But hey, guess what? That’s okay. You’re okay.
It’s perfectly acceptable to feel purposeless, super anxious, and strange right now. You don’t have all the answers, and you’re not supposed to. Maybe you don’t know if you like your job trajectory. Maybe you’re still trying to decide between a job and grad school, taking a year off to travel or jumping right into the craziness of work-life balance. Or maybe you’re rethinking the whole thing, and want to head into a completely different career path.
It doesn’t matter where you are, how much of your life is together, or if you even have a clue what you’re doing—you’re still going to make it. Because you already have.
The battle’s already been won: enrolling in school, seeing it through, and getting to the point where you can walk across the stage with a diploma in your hands. That’s dedication. That’s honor. That’s a battle won. And even if you don’t have a direction, a set plan for what comes next, you’ve still made it so far.
And for that you should be proud.
So please stop worrying over things that haven’t happened, jobs you haven’t started, friends and boyfriends you aren’t sure about. Yes, this is the next step, next page in your life. But that doesn’t mean you have to write the story the second you put the pen to the page.
You have time. And you’re okay, I promise.
Featured Image Credit: Violey
This was a great post very true!