Oh I have waited for this moment for years! Craving for freedom! Waiting to post on Instagram/Facebook my (last first day at uni), (last last day at uni), (last exam at uni), and (third day before last day at uni). Kidding about that last part, we don’t do that, yet. But you get my point, its an amazing feeling! You’re just few days away from leaving all these academic pressures behind. Enjoy it, you have definitely earned it.

Many times I heard fellow grads telling me in my last semester, “Enjoy it while it lasts because this next one, it ain’t pretty. It sucks. I wish I was an undergrad again.” At first I didn’t believe them, I was looking forward to become a graduate and a free adult to do whatever. But now, if you’re a graduate and you’re reading this, “I am so sorry for doubting you!” with a long virtual hug.

But jokes aside, graduation is not only about wearing cap and gown and receiving your degree, its far beyond than that. Its actually a welcoming to life ceremony. You’ve spent your early life enhancing your common sense, developing your skills, applying logic, working with people; all of it was a simulation before entering the adult life. The moment you graduate is the moment where you’re now ready to contribute as a character, and it can be any kind of contribution, your capabilities are not tied to your degree; as long as you have passion, dedication, and motivation, you can pursue something that is different than your degree. Not everyone is pursuing careers related to their bachelor degrees, its not always the case.

Graduation is scary to a lot of people, some to a mild degree, some to a bit frightening degree. “I’m not ready to graduate!”, “What am I gonna do with my life?”, “I’m not sure if have enough experience to apply for a job”, “Should I go for masters?”, Should I take a break?”, “Should I go for an internship instead?”. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had these thoughts in my head and in the people graduating around me. They’re all valid points, and we all are trying to search for the answers like we do when we solve problems back in uni. We think these questions have one global answer, but actually, it doesn’t. I bet at least one of you thought the answer was in this article given the title’s name. But anyway, all of these questions have different answers based on each graduating individual. Let me give you an example (see? still carrying the student vibes), you might feel you need a post-graduation break before you start looking for a job, I feel I need to start work immediately, another one thinks of starting a masters in 4 months, the other is shifting careers because its his/her new passion now. Is anyone of us making the “correct” decision? No. Its the right decision for each one of us! Its based on what each one of us wants to do. Don’t be tempted to comparison. This is something that you will have when you graduate.

The moment you and your friends graduate, you will unconsciously measure your success relative to your colleagues’ successes. Because we’re still hardwired to the idea of finishing milestones together. Me and my friends finished ENGR101 and together and will finish CS110 and ECON201 next semester, other than that, you’re not making progress as much as we do. When you graduate, you need to let go of the characteristics we developed as students; We don’t do assignments anymore, we don’t sit for midterms anymore, and we definitely don’t think like students anymore.

You have your own timeline now. You now have the decision to do what you believe in. No one is revising or making the decision for you. Each one of us has his/her own timeline the moment we’re done with university. Its gonna be weird in the beginning, that’s okay. Its not gonna be easy in the beginning, that’s okay. Its gonna take some time to adapt, that’s okay. All of these things are okay, don’t stress about it; you are not alone in this. The only thing I wanted to say when I started writing this article is, never compare yourself with others, only compare yourself with your older versions of yourself. Keep improving and developing a better version to your older version. You’ll feel so motivated when you look back at yourself a week, a month, or even a year from now and see how much you have developed. You’re well capable now, become more capable!