10 Truths About Post-Grad Life

By Stephanie Vera on March 4, 2013

1.       You will miss your friends.

During your post-grad life, you will no longer live 5 minutes away from all your friends.  When you get a job you will have to make new friends. This will make you feel vulnerable.  You will wish you were a freshman again with an entire floor of friends to hang out with.  Try not to worry though; you will eventually make new friends. It takes time.  Go on coffee dates with your co-workers.  Meet your college roommate’s friend who also moved to the same city as you. Embrace the new friendships you make, but never forget your besties from college and remember that if ever there is a chance at a Vegas Reunion, the answer is always “yes.”

2.       You will not miss financial aid. 

You will like having an actual income that is solely yours and not something you are borrowing.  No longer will you have to rely on your financial aid check to last you through the quarter.  You will have a 6-month grace period before all the loans you took out freshman year will come bite you in the butt. When the dreadful 6 months finally pass, remind yourself of everything you learned and all the fun you had in college—it was worth every penny!

3.       You will find a new hobby.

Since you will no longer be taking cool classes like Intro to Dinosaurs or Tractor Driving, you will have to find new things to occupy your time.  Many of your friends will begin brewing their own beer and making wine—life gets quite fancy after college.  Bikram Yoga is also a new trendy post-graduate go-to-hobby. An hour and a half of sweating—which will take you back to your pre-teen dating years is definitely something worth trying.

4.       You will lose touch with some people, but so will everyone else. 

College is an environment that supports you being friends with everyone and their mom.  You have your roommate, classmates, study abroad friends, sorority sisters, fraternity brothers, IM sport teammates, volunteering friends and the list goes on and on.  Coincidentally you will go on coffee and lunch dates with all these people.  You are bound to lose touch with some of them. That is okay. It is normal. It doesn’t make you a bad person or an anti-social post-graduate.  You will begin working towards your life goal and all of the friends you made in college will support this—a selected few will join you for the journey (Not necessarily physically, but emotionally they will be there every step of the way).  You will realize it is these selected few who were your true “besties” all along and you will hold on to them like people hold on to old school Super Nintendo’s—it just has to be done.

5.       You will realize you were still a child in college.

College is a time of discovery.  During college you had the ability to try new things with little to no real consequence. You were able to create insane bucket lists for yourself and check everything off them.  Once you graduate and enter the “real world,” you will feel lost. You will realize you are really quite young at 22 in an office of 30 and 40-somethings.  It will get better. Let yourself make those post-grad life mistakes.  Move to a big city.  Wear an ugly Christmas sweater to work.  Buy your new co-workers round after round at Happy Hour.  Many refer to the first year of your post-grad life as the “freshman year to the rest of your life.” You remember back when you were a freshman in college, right? You thought you were really cool, but all the upper-classmen looked at you like you were phony. Prepare for that during your post-grad life. Do not get ahead of yourself though; when you finally join life’s upper-classmen, you will miss the uncertainty and excitement that consumes your twenties.

6.       You will not be able to drink as much as you used to.

Freshman year you thought you couldn’t get drunk. It happens to everyone.  Most of us started drinking in college and thought we were invincible to alcohol. We thought the alcohol Gods were on our side and somehow decided to spare us from the effects of alcohol—how times have changed.  I hate to break it to you, but it goes downhill from here. While when you first started drinking, alcohol hardly had any effect on you.  Now that you’re a veteran the complete opposite happens. You won’t remember a thing. You have become that person. A few glasses of wine and you forget what day it is.  You will try and unleash your inner “rage” again, but I promise you, you will black out.  If you are okay with that, more power to you! If this is new information, let us take a moment and toast goodbye to Keg Stands, Power Hour and Sloshball.

7.       You will have a new favorite day of the week: PAY DAY.

You can kiss ramen and macaroni and cheese goodbye because once you begin working in your post-graduate life, you will no longer have to rely on cheap food to get by.  You will love no longer being dirt poor.  You will finally be able to financially support yourself and no longer have to rely on your parents.  Also—you will be able to choose whether you want to save or splurge—the choice will entirely be up to you and you will love this.

8.       You will start getting invited to weddings and it will creep you out.

Marriage is a part of life.  People you know will begin getting married and having kids—if they haven’t already.  It will be weird at first.  You will not like it. You will see the engagement photos on Facebook in shock, but soon your best friend will be the one getting married, then your sister and then you will start getting stressed that you’re the only single person left. You are not alone in these sentiments. If you’re freaking out that you didn’t meet “the one” in college, don’t.  There are plenty of places to meet people post-grad.  You can join a new gym, take a cooking class, join an adult softball team, get set up by one of your taken friends, and if all else fails there’s always online dating! (Happy Fishing!) But remember, you are still young and have tons of time. Right now, just opt on learning how to make Crème Brulée—once you find “the one,” they will thank you.

9.       You will have to make some big decisions.

Post-grad life is full of big decisions.  Where are you going to work? Where are you going to live? When are you going to buy a car? Are you going to buy a car? Are you going to get married? When are you going to get married? When are you going to have kids? When are you going to do that Pilgrimage in Spain you have always wanted to do? When are you going to go to grad school? Are you going to go to grad school? The questions are endless and we have all found ourselves in those situations of deep and anxious wonder. When faced with a difficult decision, weigh out the pros and cons, make lists, talk to people, and—if all else fails—flip a coin.  Decisions are only as significant as you make them; choose happiness and you will never go wrong.

10.   You will find that post-grad life is entirely whatever you make it.   

Regardless of anything this article says, you dictate the way you want to live your post-grad life.  Even though you may feel young, helpless, and inexperienced, you have the choice of doing whatever you want post-grad. No longer will you be forced to take midterms, do homework or study for finals.  That is not to say life post-grad will be easy.  Life post-grad will be as easy or hard as you make it.  You will have to find a job and given the state of our current economy that will be a challenge in itself, but you will do it. You will no longer have your parents, friends, or peers to push you; you will become your sole motivator.  You will be your cheerleader, coach, teacher and trainer—all in one! You will learn to love this.  Congratulations on beginning the freshman year to the rest of your life—now go out and live it!

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