11 Signs You Really Are Ready To Graduate College (Even If You Don’t Feel Like You Are)

1. You’re sad, and maybe a little weepy, but you’re not distraught.

You know your life won’t end when you leave here. You’ll miss it like crazy and on some days (or weeks) you know you’ll want to come back so badly. But you also understand (even if it’s just logically but not yet emotionally) that you will be okay when you leave here, and that you will still be able to find happiness away from here.

2. You like the person you are now.

And you know most of that is because of the people and the ideas you’ve been surrounded by for the last four years.

3. You feel a lot older than the freshmen, in a good way.

Whether it’s the way they socialize, the way they dress, the way they spend their free time, whatever – whenever you find yourself around younger students at your school, you can’t help but notice how different you feel from them. And you also can’t help but notice how glad you are that you are no longer ‘like that.’

4. You have no doubts about the friends you’ll stay in touch with.

You know, simply because of the way life works, that you won’t be able to stay close to everyone. But you also know, without any hesitation, that there will be certain friends you’ve made here that will always be in your life.

5. You’ve been able to comfort a lot of friends and peers who are nervous about and/or dreading graduation.

And you’ve actually surprised yourself with some of the wisdom that’s come out of your mouth.

6. At this point, you know how to deal with change.

You can remember how scared you were when you first came to this place, and how you grew to absolutely love it – so you know you’ll be okay in the real world too.

7. You’ve worked your butt off.

With your classes, with your extracurriculars, with job interviews. You’ve taken your four or so years here and absolutely given it your all. So even though you’re still nervous and anxious for this new chapter, you know you’re a hell of a lot prepared for it.

8. You find yourself thinking about all the things you want to try when you’re truly living on your own.

Whether it’s traveling, investing, or discovering a new hobby or passion, you’re eager to see what kind of life you’ll lead once you’re fully supporting yourself.

9. You’ve been having a blast these last few weeks, but you know that if your life stayed like this forever, you’d get restless.

You’re all for the late talks and the Monday night trips to the bar and the whole knowing-everyone-everywhere-you-go thing, but you also know that if your life stayed like this for a long time, you’d probably get tired of it.

10. You can sense how different you are now than when you first came here, and you feel a strong sense of pride and happiness from that fact.

And you understand that, in order for this change to have any sort of meaning and any sort of purpose, you have to move on to the ‘next thing’ now that you’ve grown as much as you could here.

11. You’re going to miss this place terribly, but you’re also at peace with the fact that it has to end.

Because you have faith in the person that you’ve become here, and you want to see who you become in the real world, too.