With only six months of my college career remaining, my post-grad fears have become bionic. Internship applications and advisement meetings have been replaced with potential employment opportunities, and apartment hunting. My graduation pictures have been taken, and family members are already planning their travel arrangements for my graduation. Even when I try to distract myself from the reality that life will be turned upside down in a few months, the unemployment numbers are always being featured on television or in print.

The pressures of trying to map out my whole entire life before May 2011 manages to take away the enjoyment of senior year at times. It has brought on sleepless nights, acne breakouts and ulcer formations, which isn’t how I pictured my last months of college.

During my worrying session one night, I began to wonder, what does having a college degree even mean? Sure, I have worked diligently for eight semesters, growing academically and socially. With confidence, I have come into my own professionally, and figured out my strengths, while admitting to my weaknesses. While this all sounds grand on paper, how will all of this help me survive in the real world, when tests are nonexistent, and my student ID will be replaced with a company ID.?

Then it dawned on me- my college career will officially conclude on May 15, 2011 (ironically also my 22nd birthday), but my education is far from over. Instead of learning about life through textbooks, and lectures, lessons will be extremely hands-on. Some lessons will be much harder than others, and it will take even more tenacity to prevail than passing last semester’s economics course did. Of course there will be a certain amount of mature decisions that will be have to be made, similar to those in the past. There have been times where I’ve had to pass up on a night out in order to finish a paper or study for a test during my college career. As a post-grad, the same sacrifices will have to be made, in order to live within by budget, or finish a work assignment by deadline.

Yes, the stakes in the “real world”, whatever that may be, will be extremely more elevated than the college days. Instead of a failing grade, the consequence will be employment termination- which will lead to late bill payments, no rent money, etc. The upside of the situation is that every college student has had proficient experiences in deadlines, presentations, and accountability. Think about the countless term papers a student writes in one year, then multiple that by four. Tally up all of the group in-class presentations that were worked on throughout the years.

Students have all flourished under pressure from professors and peers, and have successfully made it to the last leg of the marathon known as college. The setting and cast of characters will differ, but the plot line is essentially the same. The last four years have been a theoretical “boot camp” to develop students into prepared adults, ready to contribute to the “real world”. My college degree is a testimony to future employers that I have been a valuable contributing member of the University, and that I’ve met the expectations that were demanded.

Of course this doesn’t mean that I will remain 100% cool and collected until graduation, but the knowledge of knowing I’ve done what is expected of me before, will help me enjoy my last few months of my college career.

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