Everyone tells you that college will be the best four years of your life. They tell you that you’ll meet your lifelong friends and figure out who you want to be and what you want to do.
What they didn’t tell you, is that you might not figure everything out the second you step onto campus. You might not as a sophomore nor a junior. In fact, you may still not even know when you step off.
I have always pictured what I wanted my life to be like post graduation. I wanted to live and work in a big city like New York or Boston. I wanted to work my way up the totem pole until I landed a big corporate job. Eventually, I want to achieve a luxurious lifestyle, find someone to start a family with, and move out of the city. Doesn’t everyone want that? I mean I still do. But, is there only one path to get there?
When I was younger, my parents and family friends tried to steer me in all different directions about which path I wanted to take in life. Law school, business school, or grad school for journalism. I’ve considered all of the possibilities, and luckily with all these options to consider, I still have a year left to figure it out. There is always time to figure it out.
Take the summer to intern and see what you want to do (or what you don’t want to do), something I am taking advantage of for my 2022 summer. I’m exploring my options through internships and job searches, creating my own network, which I can’t stress enough, is extremely important. Every now and then, however, I spiral into thinking the life I had planned for myself isn’t possible, it is too stressful, or unachievable.
In moments like those, I often have to tell myself to take a step back and think about all I’ve accomplished thus far. Being a student at Holy Cross automatically gives me so many opportunities to allow myself to find the right track, one example being interning this semester in DC.
As the spring semester ends, I still don’t know where I am headed after graduation, which is only a year. While it might seem ways away, it’s not. Because of this, it is so crucial for me to take advantage of the resources I have today, to prepare myself for when I really must make big decisions. So, am I scared about life after college? Yes, I am. But in the end, I have no doubt that I will land in the right place, headed in the right direction, no matter when that is decided.