How To Get Through Your Post-College Slump
It starts the moment your mortarboard begins its downward arc at the end of graduation.
College, your life for the last four (or in my case five) years, is over. And frequently, your sense of accomplishment is overshadowed by a sense of loss. Graduation is a celebration, yes, but it’s also a gentle nudge out the door. It marks the end of your relationship with the campus that has been your home, the class-party-cram structure that has defined your life, and many of the friendships that have helped you become the person you now are. So if leaving college gives you that dizzy feeling like a kid who’s spun around in circles too many times, it’s perfectly understandable. Here’s how to get through it.
1. Pick three words that describe how you want to feel over the next year.
Look, you’ve got enough pressure on you to have clearly defined goals and a parent-approved career track. But just as important as what you do is how you feel. Maybe you’re ready to trade your flip-flops in for businesslady shoes, in which case your words might be “organized, balanced, focused.” Or maybe you want to take a year to work on your friend’s farm, and you want to feel “centered, wholesome, grounded.” The point is to have a system to check what you’re doing against how you’re feeling, and use it as a compass to see whether or not you’re on the right track.
2. Make new friends.
Whether you keep the same roommates you’ve had since freshman year or move somewhere you don’t know anyone, it’s important not to let your social life stagnate. The bad news is: it’s a lot harder to make friends when you’re out of the ready-made environment of school. The good news is: the internet is not just for isolating yourself anymore! Meetup.com is a particularly good resource if you’re in a new place and you want to find people with interests like yours.
3. Take the GRE.
I am so serious. Even if you have absolutely no intention of ever going to grad school, just take the damn test before your brain decides it no longer needs any of the math you ever learned.
4. Talk to an older person.
At some point, whether you’re waiting tables or working your way up the corporate ladder, you’re going to be overcome by the certainty that your life is on the wrong track and can never be rectified. When that happens: DON’T PANIC. Instead, find yourself someone you respect and admire who is over the age of fifty and ask them where they were at your age. Nine times out of ten they will say they were working on a fishing boat in Alaska, or pushing papers in a miserable accounting job, or doing something eight steps removed from the meaningful, joyful life they ended up having.
No one (except maybe you and your family) expects you to have it all figured out right out of the gate, and your post-college years are supposed to be a transitional time where, even more so than college, you have the opportunity to define who you are and what you want. (It’s also your last chance to wear a t-shirt that says “hot mess,” so seize the day!) So sell those textbooks, frame that diploma, and welcome to a world in which you are not constantly hounded by the sound of a capella groups. You’re gonna do fine.
Are you careening toward adulthood at a terrifying rate or nah?
