A little less than five months ago, I was sitting in a classroom debating whether or not to believe what my professor was saying. Not so unusual right? It was one of the last class meetings and many of us were eager, idealistic and soon-to-be graduates. The advice my professor had to offer? None of us were special and none of us were unique. He didn’t care what our mothers and fathers had told us, and neither did the real world. It would sooner chew us up and spit us out than cater to any entitlement we deemed ourselves worthy of. Oh, and by the way, try not to forget about paying back those student loans we’d done our best to ignore the last four or five plus years.

It wasn’t the advice many of us had been expecting—or even hoping for—but I have to give my professor credit. In the face of many students’ heated disagreement, he never lost his composure. Come to think of it, he never lost that knowing smirk off his face either. Five months later, I’m now living the post-grad reality and while I don’t need my professor to tell me “I told you so” (that would just be overkill), his words of advice are the ones I remember most.

Now, this isn’t meant to make you think that you AREN’T talented, or don’t have a lot going for you after college, but instead I aim to point out that possessing a college degree only takes you so far. In fact, there is only one absolute guarantee a college degree gives you—that being, that you have the college degree.

You might be wondering like I once did—shouldn’t there be some stipulation in the books regarding success after graduating? Join the club. It doesn’t work that way, especially nowadays when the jobs that are available can be as competitive as Rachel Berry when she thinks someone is trying to steal her solo (aka extremely competitive).

I wish I could say this realization came upon me suddenly, but it was more like a slow-moving tidal wave: I didn’t see it coming until it hit me in the face (or maybe it was the 30th rejection notice that did it). Either way, four years of college—one of them spent abroad—and a variety of extracurricular activities later and what do I have to show for it? Well, my parents didn’t enforce a curfew when I moved back home. Baby steps, it’s all about the baby steps.

Here’s the best advice I can give. Don’t worry, I’m not going to take stabs at being special or unique; I don’t have a PhD backing up my name. Instead, all I can say is this: Let this reality be a challenge, and let it be the motivation you need to take hold of every opportunity that comes your way. So the internship you have doesn’t pay, or you’re living with mom and dad again, or perhaps you didn’t get the call back from that ‘for sure’ interview. We’ve all been there and might still be. I find it helps to think of it like renting an apartment. You pay an outrageous amount for a small space, but at the end of the day, it’s not permanent. Sooner or later, with a lot of work on your part, there will be a better place to move on to.

You’ve got your college degree. The rest, as they say, is up to you.

You might also be interested in:

1. 10 Lessons You Need to Learn Before You Finish Your Degree
2. Gap year, part three: That full immersion thing