With most, if not all, schools and universities gearing for graduation ceremonies and other end-of-school-year activities, much is expected of those who will culminate their school life. As most would say, these are uncertain times and, perhaps, being in school is your comfort zone, rather than set out in the dog-eat-dog world of professional life.
The years could go by so fast and, in time, you will wake up thinking if your college life was worth the while and if you have been prepared to fight other dragons after beating all the other dinosaurs during your last year.
You are one step away from graduation, from school and from independence. You were once that wide-eyed freshman who were as eager to sign up for your fraternities and sororities, religiously acquiring books and admission slips and flapping your butterfly wings in all social circles as much as possible. It seemed like a dream now and it’s time for you to wake up in reality this year because your real life is beginning.
Since life has permitted you a comfort for about three years away from your parents and hometown, it’s time for you to create an outline of your life.
A checklist of things that you have done or those that you are expected to do before you bid adieu to school or college life will prove useful. Here are some of them:
- Internship is more important than you think it is. If you haven’t done your internship yet, make sure to duly commit to your internship because it is a vital factor in your resume. If you have accomplished your internship, ask for an accomplishment certificate and a referral from the company.
- Take pictures. Yes, a ton of it or even millions of it. I’m not saying you will upload everything in social media but sadly, your batchmates and friends you’ve made throughout the whole four years of this happiest ride in your life might go to other places and surely, you will miss them.
- Party, party, but be more responsible. If you stopped partying after freshman year, it’s time to rekindle the Friday madness you once experienced because it’s the last year to get crazy, but make sure that you’ve written enough for your thesis and other papers before you go out.
- Go on road trips. One of your batchmates or friends got a car, book a weekend with them and bring others because you might not get that experience with them after you graduate.
- Return the library books. Please do. Many have paid so much for overdue and lost books from the libraries for school clearance.
- Set aside a day at a coffee shop. Since you are already “adulting,” it is time for you to think deeper about how your life would work.
- Pay the cups and cylinders you broke at the Science Laboratory. If you were clumsy, it is time for you to pay for that negligence in your Biology, Chemistry, and Physics classes because it will haunt you again in clearance-signing.
- Eat everything from the cafeteria. There are the legendary foods in every generation of college and you are not forgiven if you haven’t had a bite from the last four years.
- Secure government identification cards. You might still be relying on your school ID until now, but it would feel different after graduation because you are not going to be a student anymore and it’s not going to be valid in time. Before you start applying for a job, securing IDs would benefit you. Because you are still a student, you still have plenty of time to line up and sign papers.
- If you were passive and apathetic with all those acquaintance parties, Sunday services, counselling programs and book fairs, it is time for you to attend right now. These events are privileges to you as a student, not to mention that you are given free stuff, learning different things, meeting people and getting involved in your school community. You will not be given this kind of treatment after college anymore. You are privileged.
Welcome to the professional world! | NWI
