As I enter my final year of college, I can’t help but feel bits of dread with my next step into the future on the doorstep.
From our earliest beginnings, we’ve all been asked about the future and how we plan on fitting into it. The questions, which always have the same meaning, come in various forms. “What do you wanna do with your life?” comes while you’re a child, but not taken too seriously. When you’re in your junior and senior year of high school, you start getting asked if you’ve given any thought to going to college. Then, when you’re staring college graduation in the face, it’s “What’s next?”
For some on the brink of graduation, they know what’s next. Some will pursue a master’s degree or may already have a job lined up. However, I feel the most common responses to the variety of questions are either “I don’t know” or a very hopeful and tentative plan. I am of the latter option.
It’s no secret why American graduates may feel fearful of the next step, outside of the fear of the unknown. The “real world,” as it’s been called, is brutal and unforgiving. A 2024 report from Strada Education Foundation and Burning Glass Institute found that 52% of graduates end up underemployed a year after graduation. Alongside this, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York graph shows that as of June 2024, 4.5% of recent college graduates are unemployed.
For those not continuing their academic career, this is it. This is the long-awaited end to school. That idea is great until you think about the uncertainty of “what’s next?”
Schooling for the past 17-18 years of our lives has offered structure, it allows us to focus and expect something the next day. Well, we’ve run out of road. Parents can’t force us to get a professional job, nor can we pay to get one. None of us are guaranteed the expected “next step.”
For those coming into their final year with the end in sight, how does one cope with the fear and dread that sits at the end? The absolute uncertainty that we soon-to-be graduates, who have put considerable amounts of time and money into a college degree, could end up underemployed or worse is looming.
As I sit here writing this, I struggle for a definitive answer on how to combat these fears. Writing “have a positive mindset and hope for the best” feels like a total cop-out and a total invalidation of my own and others’ feelings of worry. Neither saying it nor writing it feels realistic in any sense because here’s what I know:
Millions of Americans have graduated, and I’m sure many are disappointed with how things panned out. Maybe they didn’t get the job they wanted. Or, maybe, a million different things curtailed their dreams of being who they wanted to be. That really sucks. But maybe at the end of the day, at the root of this fear that we carry sits disappointment.
There’s a natural fear of disappointment in all of us. No parent or child wants to disappoint each other. No one wants to disappoint themselves. It hurts. To spend nearly all of our young lives on education just for it to produce nothing would be soul-crushing. Alas, we must prepare for potential disappointment, and that’s where I think the silver lining lies in not succeeding.
You’re a student who just spent perhaps thousands of dollars on studying something you’re passionate about. You graduate and can’t find somewhere or something that your heart was set on. What do you do? Do you slink away into whatever pays the bills? Or do you keep fighting? Keep pushing on what you felt was the right decision. The silver lining in disappointment is opportunity.
Every day, I wonder if I’ll find what I want to do after I get handed a degree in May. It’s a foreboding thought inked into my brain. However, there are few guarantees in life, and none deal with automatic success.
There are nine months until that day when we walk across that stage. I suggest to myself and anyone who relates to the feelings I’ve expressed to keep pushing in the meantime. We’ll never know what the future holds until that “what’s next?” moment stands before us. The fight might not be done at the end of your current era, but it may just end up being the end to the beginning.