Life continues after graduation

I'm graduating college in a couple of months. I am ending my college career. Strike that — my schooling — as I know it. I am leaving behind my life of classes, studying, not studying, exams, research papers, wild parties, great friends and so much more. I am entering a world of suits and money (all out of the confines of my parent's home — fancy that). I'm going to have to go to work at 8 a.m., whether I want to or not. There will be no sleeping late because I'm tired or hung over. It won't be like it is now. Nope, no calling into work because I don't feel like waiting tables. I am going to have responsibilities. Real ones. And I absolutely can't wait!

This is all relative because I have yet to find a job. In an economy that's in disarray, our graduating class will be struggling to grasp hold of our futures. Of course, in my case, the problem could be that I'm looking for a job where I make mucho money, laugh a lot, don't have to go to work until 10 a.m., get off work at 2 p.m., have no responsibilities, can travel, etc. Do you think my expectations are a little high? I'm embarking on my mature, adult life — a life that will lead me to marriage, children, a home and the like.

Marriage is a topic that's been on my mind a great deal lately. One of my oldest friends contacted me the other day. She was deliriously happy and asked me to guess why. Being that I was in "job mode," I assumed my music major friend had gotten a part on Broadway. I was wrong, so I guessed a guess I didn't think possible: "Are you getting married?" I prepared myself for her lapse of giggles that never came. Then she said the unthinkable; she said yes. What did she mean, "yes"? Who gets married at 21? I guess lots of people get married at 21 (sometimes before then) but I couldn't comprehend this. When your friends start getting engaged is when things get weird.

I must be way out there because my thoughts hadn't even brought me to marriage yet. I was still at the "where-will-I-be-living-in-a-year" stage in my life. How can she be getting married? I don't even have a boyfriend. So, of course, I began freaking out. I mean, does this mean I'm falling behind? Am I out of the "loop?" But soon, with my sanity intact, I remembered that I was not the only single college student on the planet. No need to panic.

So here I am, three and a half months to graduation, closing the gap between school and the "real world," and now people are getting married. I don't know if I can handle all of this. Am I really mature enough to head out on my own? I definitely can tell that many are more prepared than I. When I turned 21 last year, I thought I would wake up that morning enlightened — grown up at last! Where do I come up with these things? I mean, really, who was I kidding? I still have so many immature qualities (like many others I know), and I think it might be quite a while before I truly grow up. Where did I ever get the idea that graduating college included graduating my youthful, fun-filled life as I know it?

You always hear parents and relatives saying, "Have your fun now because it will be over before you know it," insinuating that the end of college is the end of fun and the beginning of our mature adult life. Well, I don't care if it's true or not, because I still feel like having fun. I'm planing to attack my adult life with fun and youthfulness, bridging the gap between these two worlds.

Maybe I'm just anxious or maybe I'm scared. Honestly I don't know, but my advice is to go out and have fun. Don't let the days drag you down because if you're like me, you know you have your whole life ahead of you.

Tara Starner is a senior SMAD major.