This is a second blog in a continuing series. Find part 1 here!
Did your college campus offer unlimited meals, laundry service, cable television, indoor pool, rock climbing wall, apartment- style dorms with your own room, living area and kitchen? If so, you may notice these are things you can no longer afford in the “real world.”
One of the disservices we often offer our college attendees is a school lifestyle that is not usually affordable after graduation.
It isn’t your fault you’ve grown accustomed to 24 hour entertainment, friends literally a step away and scheduled social interactions via campus staff. After graduation, concerts are not free, neither are meals, unless Mom and Dad are cooking. It all costs money your fresh-out-of-college job may not be able to afford.
There is not only sadness which accompanies these bills, but a sense of resentment. How can I work so hard for 4 years (or more) and live a lifestyle less desirable than the one I left at college?
This is where your mom and dad may have actually benefited from the no air-conditioning, less glitzy, bare-essential college campus they experienced. Life after college for them may have felt like roses and rainbows. Maybe being a “poor college kid” was a reality for them coming out of their college experience. More often, students thirty years ago couldn’t wait to graduate, get a job and make money to live in a place nicer than their dorm.
Today, universities are competing for top scholars by offering amenities most students haven’t previously experienced on a regular basis. This new experience can set graduates up for feelings of:
- Regret – “I don’t want to leave.”
- Resentment – “How do they expect me to live the lifestyle I’m used to on such a tiny salary?”
- Sadness or Depression – “Where do I find new friends now? Why isn’t there anyone to hang out with?”
These are common complaints making the adjustment from college to working life. These feelings are normal. But what to do with them…let’s use these feelings to propel us forward into the life we want.
So, what now? Stay tuned for part 3 of this series!
Written By: Allison Wray
