It is a dreaded time for recent graduates. It is the first year where you are out in the “real world” and not in the comfy bubble of your college, doing your routine functions with your sorority, clubs or athletic teams. It’s the hardest year to deal with post-graduation because all of the shit you were used to doing for four years straight suddenly comes to a halt, and you find yourself vicariously living through your friends on Facebook. There are seven emotions you will find yourself feeling throughout this entire year while you Facebook creep on everything that’s happening at your alma mater.
1. Sadness
This is an obvious emotion that you will feel. Sure you are moving on to the next chapter of your life and it’s exciting, but you miss your old life. You watch all of the posts on Facebook and Instagram about “Moving back into to school today woohoo!” and you aren’t there. This is the first thing you have to get used to not doing anymore. You miss living with your roommate, decorating your new room for the year, and organizing your clothes into the tiniest of spaces. You miss all the comfort of having dorm neighbors two feet away and your friends that you can sob with while watching Grey’s Anatomy reruns over and over again whilst eating your weight in junk food.
2. Jealousy
It is totally okay to feel a little jealous of your peers that are still in school. You see all the cute pictures they post with your sorority, you see the fun activities of things happening that “totally didn’t happen when you were there” and “of course that shit happens after I graduate.” You scroll through your news feed liking your sisters’ statuses and pics, but you know deep down your green eyed monster is growing with every post you see. “Why can’t I still be at school?” “OMG they got the cutest recruitment hoodies this year, I want one.” “Wow these are such cute pictures, I wish I took a pic like that in college.” Remember, it’s totally okay to feel a little jealous. You are used to being at every party, recruitment, Greek Week, and homecoming. This is your first year missing out, and it sucks.
3. Desperation
This isn’t as bad as it sounds. It’s kind of just the feeling of wanting to go to school every chance you get to try and live all of these moments again because you’re sad and jealous and you feel like you’re missing out. But you also do not want to be “that alumni” who doesn’t get the fact she fucking graduated already and is super annoying visiting all the time. “Doesn’t she have a real job and life?” (God you have no idea how much I wish that was true). You have to be the alumni that comes so few times a year that bitches essentially piss themselves with excitement when they see you. It doesn’t help that the year after graduation you are desperate for a job, a fun social life, and money so being desperate for your old life is just the icing on the cake of post-grad depression.
4. Loneliness
This isn’t so much of an emotion as it is just a general feeling. Your best friends all went their separate ways, you still have some friends away at school, and you might even be in another state. You go from being surrounded by thousands of people all around you, in your classes, at parties and sporting events, to adult life where you’re in a different state, maybe living alone and trying to move up in your grown up job or grad school. You aren’t surrounded by so many familiar faces anymore and it can cause you to feel pretty lonely, especially if your very best friends and family are miles away and you only see them through weekly FaceTime dates.
5. Regret
This doesn’t really happen to everyone but it definitely can happen. What I mean by regret is that you kinda start looking back at your college life wondering if you did everything you wanted to do. You see all these posts and videos of people doing fun shit, and you wonder if you did anything fun while you were there. You drive yourself crazy with all these emotions mixed together, and you eventually have to snap yourself out of it and remind yourself you had a blast and shouldn’t have any regrets. Obviously your college life was fantastic since you miss it so much and want to relive it again.
6. Withdrawal
Like regret, this really isn’t a specific emotion, but it is definitely something you feel during this year of post grad. Like most addicts, you feel lost and confused without your yearly recruitment, big/little reveals, Greek Weeks, and frat parties. So when the reality sets in that this isn’t really your lifestyle anymore, you feel at a loss and you want it back. You have to slowly ween yourself off of being obsessed with every little thing your sorority is doing differently now that you are gone. Shit is gonna change and you aren’t gonna be there for a lot of those changes. You just have to get over it and move on, you have a new life waiting for you. And you can still drink in this one, so it’s not so bad.
7. Happiness
This is the final emotion you will feel during you first year of post-grad and thankfully this is usually the one that sticks. After you go through the sad, the regret, the loneliness and the jealousy, you finally realize that your past is your past and you don’t really want to relive it. You fucked shit up in college (in a good way) and loved every second but now you are ready to officially move on to this next chapter and make new memories. You make new friends, you are still tight with you best friends from school and you are rockin’ your new job. Sure college is pegged as “the best years of our lives” but shouldn’t every year of our lives be the best?.
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awyland
I'm Ashley and I get wine drunk by myself more than I should, eat my weight in tacos and make bad choices. I'm a ball at parties and only slightly embarrassing. Enjoy the shit I write. xoxo.
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