College ended four and a half months ago. But I’ve realized that although I’ve left school, school isn’t letting go of me that easily. No one ever told me, even after 16 consecutive years of facts being funneled into my feeble brain, how to turn this “student mode” button off. I mean, no one really told me that getting a Bachelor’s was also synonymous with never sleeping and getting bags under my eyes, not eating right and still gaining weight, and being transformed from an avid bookworm to hating anything in writing that wasn’t a text message from my friends.
All that is to say that no one prepared me for what REAL College was like, and no one prepared me for the REAL “life after college”. I haven’t been out in the harsh, cruel world long enough to have an entire guideline of things to watch out for.
But I do have a short list to start with.
First off, your ability to conceive of time is thrown off. Semesters are no longer a part of your life. Give it a moment to sink in. You can’t think in terms of “1st term” or “Spring Break” or whether you’re a “1st year” or a “senior”. Life after school means you need to start learning dates and keeping a timeline based on events like…weddings and...children being born, and your promotion. In my experience, if you don’t have too many of those goings on, you’re at risk of having months blend into each other. I have yet to find out how to tell years apart.
Once you manage to keep yourself time-oriented, it’s important to let go of the No. 1 plague of being a student: Homework! The bliss is being no longer subject to this cruel form of “learning”, as they say, and it’s probably one of the biggest perks in graduating.
Not having any homework, however, doesn’t mean that all of a sudden you stop thinking you have homework. It finally dawned on me that work doesn’t need to happen at home. For several weeks into my new job, I was under the impression that work needed to be completed before arriving at the office. False. This is why you have office hours, to work. Please, don’t be like me; enjoy this luxury instead of sinking back into many sleepless nights over deadlines.
Which brings us to my next point: Deadlines. They still, unfortunately, exist. You also discover that you are somehow far less productive without them. Deadlines, although conceived of in college as an effective premature threat, is so effective in fact that you don’t get your work done without them. A loose suggestion of “Get that done by next week” in student language translates to “Do it the night before.” This didn’t fare well in college, and it has more consequences in the real world. Should you find yourself working in an environment without tangible dates to meet, I would suggest you make a schedule for yourself. This “schedule” can be likened to what is a constant means of keeping you depressed in college, known otherwise as syllabus. The difference between the two is being a fine line between a syllabus being handed to you, and a schedule being something you get to create and alter to your liking.
One thing that I’m not enjoying in particular is being denied the privileges that come with student status. You weren’t too sure there were any, but there’s one in particular that I took for granted until I didn’t have it anymore.
I’m talking about student discounts. In America, I was able to save money on so many things. I rarely paid in full for a movie ticket, I got to go to some events for free, and I even got discounts at some restaurants. That little card with my face and my school’s name and logo was like a magical “get stuffs cheaper, if not for free” license that was replaced with a diploma and having to pay full price for everything.
As far as I know, the student discount card in Kathmandu is most useful when using public transportation, or you can save some money if you go to City Center and watch 4D movies even though it only applies to shows before 1pm.
I suppose the one thing in the “adult” world that makes up for not having student discounts is: PAYDAY. Gone are the days of being paid by the hour. No longer do you need to work sick so you make cash for spending or for rent. You get paid. Regularly. That’s probably the best thing about joining the workforce.
I’ve had so many people tell me that college was the best years of their lives. That always depressed me because if the all-nighters, the endless reading, and the countless lectures were supposed to be the peak of my life, what did I have to look forward to? Luckily, I’m realizing that the real world isn’t as bad as everyone made it look like, if only I could get out of school mode long enough to enjoy it.
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The author has a great sense of humour and a captivating style of writing. I like her lighthearted and funny take on adjusting to life after college.
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Sharone
Well...nice experience shared by the author during the transtion phase that every graduate goes through. However, she needs to be a bit optimixtic about life and to take it easy.. Also she seems confused about a lot of this so i suggest her not to regret or procrastinate and make her priorities clear.
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suyesh
A nice read but sadly so far off from what a common Nepali student would feel experience. no offence, but the author is yet to come to terms with th real world.
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