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47 Things Every Graduating Senior Is Completely Terrified Of

Scared of graduating

  1. That you’ll never be able to toss tequila back like you used to.
  2. Actually you already can’t toss tequila back like you used to, which kind of proves your point.
  3. And what about all of the elevated surfaces? They can’t dance on themselves.
  4. You don’t even know if you’re capable of wearing heels without being drunk.
  5. And pantyhose? Is that even a real thing in life?
  6. You still haven’t found a job, and you’re pretty sure you’ll never find a job.
  7. Like ever.
  8. Plus, you don’t even know what you want to do.
  9. Maybe you should have gotten a teaching degree.
  10. Or nursing.
  11. Or just poked some holes in some condoms and gotten knocked up by a rich frat guy. #TrophyWife
  12. You want to come around for literally every event once you graduate.
  13. But you’re afraid of becoming that girl.
  14. Besides you can’t decide if you should stay in your town or move across the country.
  15. Or should you travel? Your Instagram is looking pretty lame lately.
  16. But ugh, that requires money. And planning. And pants.
  17. Part of you says adventure, the other part of you says live at home forever.
  18. You’re terrified that your parents will immediately take you off of the family plan.
  19. And LOL at paying for your own iPhone data.
  20. Also, insurance? What is that exactly? Do you need it?
  21. 401(k)? More like “401 hey what is this and how do I get one?”
  22. What if you don’t find your “thing”?
  23. What if you don’t have a “thing”?
  24. Will you be lonely, not living down the hall from your best friends, sisters, and life lines?
  25. Will they even think about you?
  26. How acceptable is it to cry in public postgrad? Because that’s like, a thing for you.
  27. Despite all of the pranks you feel like you didn’t fuck with your house mom enough.
  28. And even though she was a buzzkill, you’d totally take living under her dictator-like regime over graduating.
  29. What if your best friend moves away and replaces you with some dumb bitch who has better hair than you?
  30. It’s not your fault you have thin hair and never-ending split ends.
  31. You’re pretty sure that you didn’t actually learn anything in college. Like at all.
  32. Well except how to sneak boys into your room, how to handle your liquor, and how to eat a whole pizza in under ten minutes.
  33. Can that be a job?
  34. You’re pretty sure this is the end of day drinking, and you can’t really accept that.
  35. You don’t know what to put on your mortarboard that makes you seem fun, educated, and clever.
  36. How can you possibly sum up what college means to you on that tiny piece of fabric?
  37. It’s like, the final crafting test.
  38. And you know that once you leave, going back and visiting school will never feel the same.
  39. And that’s completely devastating.
  40. Why didn’t you appreciate it more? You didn’t get enough free shirts, enough free pizza, and enough free STD testings.
  41. It went by too fast. It’s like you walked into your freshman dorm, blinked, and now here you are, about to pick up your cap and gown.
  42. You’re not ready. You can’t be ready.
  43. You don’t want to say goodbye, and you don’t want to let go.
  44. They say college is the best four years of your life, and now you have to walk away from that and towards…what?
  45. The scary, confusing, “WTF do I do next” unknown, that’s what.
  46. What if it’s bad? Or it’s hard? Or it’s not what you hoped it would be?
  47. What if you’re not what you hoped you would be?

Ready for the truth? It’s going to be hard. And scary. And at first, you might fall down. You might not get your dream job. You might have to move back home. You might watch your friends become successful and wonder if you’ll ever discover who you are and what you want. You’ll long for college, your friends, and a simpler time when your biggest concern was Greek week pairings (that seems so silly now, doesn’t it?). But falling down is just part of it. The unknown is the start of something known. Something wonderful. Something that you’ve been working your whole life towards. Not a job, not a career, and not a paycheck. You’ve been working to find out who you are. And leaving college will get you that much closer.

Growing is hard, and moving on is even harder, but you can’t figure out the next chapter in your story until you close the previous one. And trust me, the next chapter is even better. It’s filled with doing what you love, having money for real alcohol, and finally figuring out who you’re supposed to be. So smile, don’t look back, and keep moving forward. It only gets better from here.

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Rachel Varina

(yeahokaywhat) Aspiring to be the next Tina Fey, Rachel spends her free time doing nothing to reach that goal. While judging people based on how they use "they're" vs. "there" on social media, she likes eating buffalo chicken dip, watching other people's Netflix, and wearing sweatpants way more than is socially acceptable.

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