No one ever told me it would be this hard. After high school graduation, most of us have somewhere to go'to college. But after college, the path is unpaved. After college, life is supposed to start. But where and doing what?
As many of us confront graduation in two weeks, these questions that have been pushed away for so long stand immovable in our faces. In two weeks, we must do something. We no longer have the next semester to worry about'we have life to worry about.
Some people, those nonprocrastinators everyone hates who always finish papers a week ahead of time, have jobs already. They accepted jobs last September after spending summers in internships preparing for \the real world.""
And then there's the rest of us'the majority of the college population. We've spent our college careers having fun, working summer jobs in the sun and generally postponing life. And now life is here, and I personally just wish I could stay in college'well, without the classes, but still in college.
But I don't have that option any more. Yesterday I accepted a job. It's the corporate job many promise they'll never take. But it will be OK. It's just the first tentative step into ""the real world.""
I've changed my mind so many times over the past four years in college, and I know it'll never be made for good. I first went away to college as a music major'thinking I'd play the clarinet professionally for the rest of my life. After two years, when I embraced the fact that I'd much rather listen to the Goo Goo Dolls and play the guitar than make clarinet reeds and play Beethoven excerpts all day, I left music school.
Transferring back home to UW-Madison was the best decision I've ever made. I chose to be an economics major, honestly, because I knew it would allow me to graduate on time. But over time, I've learned that I think like an economist, and every once in a while, I actually enjoy it.
I think most students actually enjoy college. No matter how much we complain, things are really pretty good. Because we have to choose a major, most people choose one that's relatively suited to them. And though we may try to convince ourselves that UW-Madison is the worst college ever because of its advising problems and tuition increases, it isn't much different from any other school. In fact, most of us would admit that we think it's better than most other universities. Why else would we be here?
Madison has helped me, and everyone I know here, grow into adults. Though most still don't know what they want to do ""when they grow up,"" I don't think we should. It's too boring that way. Life is exciting because of the possibilities, the opportunities and the uncertainty of it all.
So after all of the work of college, and all of the anxiety of graduating, life is pretty good. We'll all miss college'these are the best years of our lives. But we'll move on and succeed in our own way and do what we can to be happy.
