7 Things You Can’t Get Away With After Graduating College
sorority formal by araza123 licensed by CC BY 2.0
1. Unfiltered Swearing
Most of the people you’ve been around for the past 4 (ish?) years don’t care how many times you say the f-word in one sentence. In the workforce, and around most adults that are not in your age group, using curse words for emphasis is not going to fly. It’s unprofessional and immature.
2. Not Buying Substantial Groceries
The Walmart trips to buy goldfish and cosmic brownies will turn into trips to either refill your stock of Lean Cuisine or to buy actual fresh food that you can magically turn into a complete and balanced meal. Sure, you can try eating out for every meal, but that’ll get expensive real fast. Yes, ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese are cheap, but they have very little nutritional benefit. Unless you’re planning on packing on the post-grad 25, they probably aren’t a long-term option either. And you thought the Freshman 15 was bad.
3. Wearing Sweatpants Everyday
In college, nobody really cares what you look like or judges you for wearing the same clothes 3 days in a row. In the real world, what you wear sends a message to the public about not only how you see yourself, but also how you want other people to see you. Technically you might be able to get away with wearing sweatpants every day, but if you want to get a professional job and put that degree to use, you’re going to have to dress up for more than just the interview.
4. Staying up Into the Wee Hours of the Morning
After graduating – newsflash - you probably have work in the morning. Staying up until 2 a.m. isn’t really a feasible option when you have to work an 8:00 to 5:00 the next day. Also, sleeping through work is heavily frowned upon. You can deny it all you want, but it won’t be long before all those sleepless college nights are going to catch up with you. You’ll be best off facing the reality sooner rather than later.
5. Napping During the Day
You mean we can’t nap after lunch for 2 hours every day? Uh, no. That’s not how the world works. I know, I know. It’s okay, you will survive. Maybe.
6. Doing Whatever You Want, Whenever You Want To
In college, we have so much free time. We don’t actually spend that much time in class if you break it down and compare it to the amount of time there is in a week. After class, what do you do? Take a nap, hang out with your friends, run (or walk) over to the cafeteria for dinner, do some homework, watch Netflix for 6 hours….No. You have real responsibilities now. Make yourself some food. Clean your apartment. Pay some bills. Call your mom.
7. Spontaneous Traveling
The weekend trips, the spring break trips, and the summer vacations with friends? Yeah, that’s over. Traveling takes a lot more planning now. You have to decide where you’re going, when you can get the time off work, when you have enough money between student loan payments to afford it, and how long you can afford to stay. While you may have had to think of these things to a certain extent in college, it requires a lot more time and effort to pull it all together now. Sorry. Guess you better be going somewhere that is well worth the process of getting there.