Like many experiences, college feels like one that will last forever in the moment.
Why? Mostly because there’s always something coming next. It’s a four-year long period of when the next assignment is due and what the next milestone is. First comes trying to find the right friends and making it through your first semester. Then getting your first work study job, becoming a club leader, or interviewing for your first internship. Before you have time to exhale, the next “next” becomes choosing your last semester of classes and completing your capstone project. By the time you reach that point, you usually aren’t thinking about much except making it to that finish line. It’s suddenly so visible—the idea of all that hard work paying off and feeling like you’ve done something with your life.
The ending is as exciting as it is hectic. You finish your capstone project and feel like you can finally breathe again. You’re proud of all the things you did. You attend your last classes. Your professors share kind words and encouragement for the future. You pack up your apartment. Submit the final assignment. Then there’s a stage in front of you, and an hour or so of more accomplished people telling you that you’ve persevered and will continue to do so. They say your name, and you try not to trip when you walk across. You take too many pictures with people you’ll probably never see again, and then you go home.
And for the first time in four years, everything is really quiet.
The experience of being in college always takes up so much space. Loco Mag itself was chosen as a college-aged publication, talking about college perspectives. Yet, as influential as the undergrad can be, it’s also important to shed light on what comes after. That, my friend, can be daunting.
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Everyone has different relationships with college, and likewise differing reactions to being finished with it. For some, graduation may be the best thing that ever happened to them. For others, the worst. Most of us will fall somewhere in between.
One of the first things that many recent grads experience is a loss of community. This comes in many forms. Attending a University is one of those rare experiences where everyone has something in common and everything is within reach. You’re all away from home, looking to make friends and connect with people. Most have walkable access to food, green space, relaxing coffee shops and lounges, career counseling, and even mental health treatment. Furthermore, you have a network of professors and staff members that you see everyday whose sole job is to provide insight and encouragement.
Yes, many colleges offer some miscellaneous services for alumni, but for the most part this network of support begins to fade after graduation. For myself, I went from waving at everyone while walking to class or cooking meals together with my roommate and our friends, to living at least an hour from those I knew from school and rarely seeing anyone outside of my family. Many people simply don’t realize how extensive of a community network college provides, and how isolating it can be to lose that so suddenly.
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Then there’s the task of deciding what to do next. No matter what situation you’re in—whether you started your first full-time job the week after graduation, or still have yet to do anything with yourself come September—the feeling of being an untethered adult in the world is like a breath of fresh air and a slap in the face at the same time. Often it comes in the form of endless decisions. Do I get a job now? Or go to grad school? Should I travel while I have the time, or focus on my career first? Are there even enough jobs in what I want to do? Will I make enough money? Should I have even chosen this major, or gone to college, in the first place?
There are a million ways that things could play out now, and this is only the beginning.
If you’re a recent graduate, you also know that applying to jobs can require… perseverance. A lucky few fight their way to a job offer right after graduation. Others may spend months refreshing their inbox, hoping to hear back from any (and I do mean any. Even one would do!) of the positions they applied to. At the same time, most of them have just returned to their hometown or gotten an apartment somewhere; both things that may require additional adjustment. It’s a strange time. Filled with lots of freedom but lots of uncertainty too. As the cool kids say, the world is your oyster. And sometimes that oyster is terrifying.
Nevertheless, this can be tough. It can feel like everyone else has their life together. Maybe they got their dream job right away or have an interview for some fancy ivy league grad program. It makes it even worse that you’ve stopped seeing these people face to face, reduced to seeing only the accomplishments they want you to see online. Then you start to wonder whether you’re the only one who feels like the rug just got pulled out from under you.
Spoiler #1, everyone who recently graduated is just as uncertain as you are. Some of them are just hiding it better than others.
Even knowing this, you’re still stuck smiling politely at your distant family members and family friends who ask well-intentioned questions about what’s next.
Spoiler #2: You don’t have to actually know the answer to that. Not anytime soon, if you don’t want to. Or not ever.
Furthermore, you’re allowed to have a plan for how you’d like things to go, and then completely change it a year from now. A great many people have lived their lives in many different ways—plan, no plan, ruined plans, new plans—and been perfectly happy with where they ended up.
So take a breather. Nobody says you have to know where you’re going right away, but if you do, that’s wonderful too. If you need it, take a moment to rest. You have time now! Freedom! Go catch up with your high school friends or do everything you never had time to do while pursuing a full-time degree.
As much as it may feel like it, you’re not magically a different person now that you’ve graduated. You’re still you, living your life with a few new adventures. Just keep doing what you’re doing, and focus on whatever the next step is. Start small, explore some careers, build up some hobbies, or look into further schooling. Talk to people. Volunteer. Tug on any threads that seem worthwhile. Move in a direction and just keep going. Find a new thing to be a part of. And if you need to, just accept that unexciting job if it makes you money and gives you the freedom to look at other options. Dreams take time, anyway.
Spoiler #3: It’ll all work out somehow.
How do I know this? Not because I’ve made it out the other side yet, that’s for sure. I just asked some of the people who came before me, and this is what they had to say:
“Graduating from college is like taking off your bike’s training wheels for the first time, except you’re also in the middle of the desert. You know how to pedal the bike, you’ve spent the last four years studying and you’re equipped to start your career. However, you might not know where to go from here. There’s no map. There’s no signs pointing you one way or another. You also might not know how to balance yourself and you’ll probably fall. A lot. That’s all okay. Just keep going. Eventually, you’ll get the hang of it, you’ll keep riding that bike through the sand until you reach your first destination. Then the next. Then the next. And so on. Truly the best piece of advice that I can give is that no matter where you are, no matter what you’re doing or how you’re feeling, just keep going. It takes time, but you can get anywhere you want to be as long as you keep going.” – Ryan Hiemenz ‘23
“Let go of the idea of perfection in any area of your life. Good enough is, often, good enough. Determine your boundaries early on in any new environment, particularly work, and hold tight to them.” – Helen Armstrong ‘18
“I’m just over a year out of graduating and I’m still working my same retail job that I was working when I left school. As I’m doing nothing with my degree, I’ve watched my friends get jobs in their desired fields or go on to find new passions. It is tough to think about but if you find yourself in a similar situation, know that there is no set timeline! You’ll get where you want as time passes, it may take longer for you than for the people around you, but it’s got nothing to do with you. The job market sucks right now and as long as you’re surviving and finding other things in life that make you happy outside a job, you’ll do fine. You’re going to be okay!” – Fern Manetta ‘23
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I hope that helps : )
All images by Jewel Miller.
