10 Lessons You Learn After Graduating College

Lesson One: The real world is scary but what’s even scarier is living in your parent’s basements for the rest of your life. Get out and make something of yourself. You won’t be sorry. 

Lesson Two: Clothes, makeup, and hair products are like alcohol; you get what you pay for. The same way cheap wine and vodka will give you a bad hangover cheap clothes, makeup, and hair products will fall apart, run off your face, and leave your hair frizzy, flat and damaged and you will look less than professional. 

Lesson Three: You will be poor. Not forever but for a substantial amount of time. Colleges don’t tell you this because it makes them look bad, but once you’re on your own you will realize how expensive life is when you have to pay for things like heat, electric and shampoo. These things are expensive and you will be a whole new kind of poor but this will not last forever. Eventually you’ll come out the other side and have a new appreciation for things you once took for granted. 

Lesson Four: Accept help. Swallow your pride and accept help. Whether it’s a place to live for a few months till you figure your stuff out, a friend’s mom cooking you a meal, or your friend buying you lunch or coffee. Accept it and say thank you. You are too poor for pride. 

Lesson Five: Find something to believe in. It doesn’t have to be God or Jesus, it could be anything even something you made up. But trust me, when you haven’t gotten a second interview for the past six job interviews you went on and you’re eating ramen and eggs for the fourth straight week you’re going to need something to believe in. 

Lesson Six: You are not in college anymore; bathing regularly and dressing like a real person are now requirements. Wearing the same sweats for a week straight is no longer acceptable. Neither is rolling out of bed and wearing your pajamas in public. You must dress like a human. Prepare yourself now and accept it. This will be one of the hardest lessons to come to terms with. 

Lesson Seven: You must broaden your pallet to real food like seafood or steak. If you go to a business lunch and order chicken tenders you will not only look like a child but probably be seen as a child by your colleagues. If you absolutely can’t find anything you like order a salad. It will come smothered in dressing and you will look mature and semi health conscious. 

Lesson Eight: Best friends does not always mean forever. That best friend you thought was going to be your bridesmaid will drift away slowly at first and then completely. It will be hard but letting go of them and holding onto your memories is the best thing for you to do. 

Lesson Nine: Moving home after college will suck. It sounds negative but it’s true. Even if you have to coolest family around, moving back into your childhood bedroom at age 21 with a bachelor’s degree sucks. You can try and make the best of it and many people will but accept that there will be days when the suckyness of it all will overcome. Just remember here is a light at the end of the tunnel but sometimes it’s a really, really, really long tunnel. 

Lesson Ten: It’s okay to lose yourself and find yourself but make sure you don’t lose the people closest to you in the process. Life after college is a huge adjustment that is different for everyone and one of the hardest parts is keeping in touch with the people who made your college years as great as they were. There will be times when you are lost and confused, sad and don’t want to talk to the world or so excited and involved in the exiciting new things in your life that you will go days, weeks and even months without talking to your best friends. Don’t. Your best friends are key to who you are today so don’t forget about them. Don’t be afraid to call them at 2 am when you’re crying over yet another job rejection, or have a Facetime celebration with a bottle of wine in your respective states when you finally get your dream job.