2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 201
No one tells you how difficult leaving college
is. The pressure is all on getting a job, maybe some
kind of graduate school and moving on to the next
chapter. But no one ever mentions how sad it is to
move on to that chapter.
Right now everyone is focused on job interviews
and final exams, but I am focused on spending
all the time I have left with my friends. College
friends become your family, in a way. You see them
every day for four years and maybe even live with
them, and then everyone goes to a different city.
Some are going to New Orleans, New York, Dallas,
Houston or Los Angeles. The odds that we will all
be in the same city at the same time ever again is
pretty low.
I like to call college the four-year paid vacation.
It is the only time in your life when you have
complete freedom with relatively few financial
struggles. Your only job is to make decent grades.
I never understood why people were sad to leave
high school. After high school, my next step was
planned. There was never a question for me that I
was going to college. And the odds were that I was
guaranteed to get into at least one school.
After college, nothing is guaranteed.
There is absolutely no guarantee that you will
get into graduate school, law school or medical
school. There is still no guarantee that you will
find a job that pays a decent salary.
A lot of us are on our own after college, but I for
one do not feel mature enough to be a full adult.
Sure, I’ve learned a lot, and I feel like I have some
of it down. I’m registered to vote. I know how to
pay bills. I can set up a wifi router. But I still don’t
know how to file taxes or even how to put together
my own bed.
As sad as I am to leave, moving on is inevitable.
I am thankful for the friends and memories I have
made here, and hopefully, the adult world is not as
miserable as I am imagining.
Freshmen and sophomores, life will never be
as easy as it is right now. Go out with your friends,
flirt with that person from your class and don’t get
absorbed in stress.
Photos by Julian Cooper
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