College isn’t the best time of your life

And if it was, then you must’ve peaked in college- which is sad.

I’m back, y’all! After a small break cause I’ve been finishing up my degree! It only took me 5 years, but whatever, finishing in 4 is sooo 2013. So here I am with a blog post about college cause I’m now a college graduate ( final grades pending).

What I learned in college is

College is definitely the time where you grow…a a lot. I learned a lot, not just in class but also outside. I learned how sad it is to make a university organization your life. How annoying professors can be when they have tenure and don’t give a shit. I learned how to study while on a Netflix binge. I also learned how finding a passion won’t happen overnight. I learned how failing isn’t the worst thing ever.

I entered college, thinking I would major in something I knew I could get a steady job in and marry my then-boyfriend and be a housewife. Then we broke up, and I had an existential crisis and felt like college was pointless and worthless. I failed Accounting 3 times, got my heartbroken, and went to therapy. Honestly, the best thing ever. I changed my major and found my passion for social media marketing. It only took 3 years.

Life is crazy but also at the end of the day who cares where you went to college, and what you did in college. We are a small dot in the universe. College is like 10% of your life if you take 5-6 years. That’s nothing! It shouldn’t be the best time ever cause you have the rest of your life to be excited about!

What now, Carolyn?

Honestly, Y’all need to stop asking that!! I don’t know what’s next, Aunt Tonie?! So stop asking! What’s next is I get a job. Yes, I am looking, and yes, it’s tough out there I don’t need your pity conversation. Don’t ask me what’s next after I just spent 5 years learning pointless information that wouldn’t apply to my actual career. It is annoying AF. No one really knows what to do post-graduation. No one knows what they want to do for the rest of their life anyways. I want to travel, but I need a job for money to do that, so I’m at a Catch-22. That’s what that post-grad life is basically. You need a job but can’t get it cause you have no experience and fresh out of college.

Really though, what’s next for me is hopefully getting an excellent first out of college job and learning more about my future career. I have ideas of what I want to do with my life, maybe open a business, travel the world jobless for a year, or find the love of my life.  Who knows! So that’s what my answer is when people ask, “what now?”

My advice about college

So I guess I should end this with some advice for you college kids or incoming ones or whatever you are students, so here is my advice.

1. don’t get involved in your first semester or even year.

I know at orientation the OLs always say get involved! Join a club or sports but don’t. Here’s why. You need to make friends, but don’t let your only friends be ones in that organization you joined. What if you hate the organization or no longer interested in it. Then it’s awkward to have friends where that’s all they talk about. College is a time to meet new people from different backgrounds. So do that! Get out of your comfort zone and meet people from various organizations and environments. Have multiple friend groups.

2. Even though your annoying cousin finished in 3 years with a 4.0- You don’t have to.

I took 12 credit hours in Spring and Fall and 2 classes every summer.  I finished in 5 with a 2.something. Honestly, who gives a fuck? Unless you are applying for a grad school, law/med school, then your GPA matters, but for the real world, it’s about the experience. Get a job, get an internship. You learn way more from that then from textbook knowledge. You learn the people/management skills you can’t learn in class. Because at the end of the day, that perfect Alpha Delta Kappa girl who made the Dean’s list every year will be unemployed right there with you.

3. People suck. Group projects suck. Papers suck. Get over it, deal with it.

Co-workers are classmates that get paid to be annoying. Group Projects are basically interdepartmental projects at a company. Papers just suck (but chances are, you will have to do more of them later on in life). In college, you need to learn to deal with people, not try to change everyone around you and the world. Change yourself. Make sure you learn how to deal with people respectably that way, when you get a job you don’t get fired for yelling at Susan for asking the same question over and over again when you clearly put the answer in a department-wide email.

College is a stressful, annoying, awful, fun time in your life, but it’s not the only thing in your life. You will get through it. (I believe in you!) So now I have an “education”- and if you know someone hiring a quirky cat-loving marketing major- let me know!

-Meow

 

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