Senior year is a strange year. In high school, we stressed about college admission, about figuring out what we should major it, about how we are going to leave home and be ‘independent’. What we don’t realize is that that time of our lives is nothing compared to our senior year of college.
This past semester was one of my best semesters at Emerson but yet, anxiety has also begin to set in. I can only imagine my friends who graduated a semester earlier, how are they feeling, how annoyed they are of people asking them what they’re plans are, how they are dealing with their parents inquiries, etc.
“Real life” so they say, is creeping up a lot faster than I’d like. Although that term itself should be reworded, those two words give us moire anxiety than anything. It’s almost as if the last 23 years of our lives were not real. But I’d say they were, I did a lot of real things, I traveled to a lot of real places and I’d like to say I met a lot of real people.
Growing up in a well-off family, I haven’t had to worry about much, about tuition, living arrangements, food and I can’t be more thankful for it but on the flip side, there are high expectations of me to live up to that standard. The field that I want to go into and love doing is not the most looked upon. It doesn’t make half as much money as I am ‘expected’ to make. I understand that it won’t uphold the lifestyle I’m living now, but I hope you understand that I’m ok with it.
I know very well I will not be able to travel as much, go out to bars as much or even eat at as many various restaurants but I know there is a chance I can wake up every day and be happy to go into work- and that I think is the most important.
With that being said, I know the anxiety will only worsen the next couple months as I attempt to figure out my life out of school but I have faith. I believe that it will all work out. Im simply going to enjoy the last of my senior year, work hard at my internships and do what I gotta do.
Finally, to all graduating and graduated seniors, take heart. Take it one day at a time, do what you gotta do and everything will work out. Your family will still love you, your friends will still be there (with one warning, don’t lose touch of whats important as you pursue the future) and you’ll still be living “real life”.
Joanne Lam 