As the senior members of Ed Board prepare for graduation-it’s officially 43 days away; sorry to ruin the weekend-we have noticed a great distinction between last semester of senior year in high school and our last semester as seniors in college.

Everyone can look back at the second semester of senior year in high school with the fondest of memories. Class was practically optional, grades weren’t really that important anymore and teachers let you get away with anything.

But, best of all, you were getting ready to go to college! The best four years of your life, right? Parties! New friends! Independence! So, for most of us, we knew where we’d be in a year. Actually, unless we decided to transfer or drop out, we knew where we’d be in four years, too.

We can’t really say the same for college. Not only do we now know where we’re going to be in a year, let alone a month, but school just isn’t as fun as it was when we were seniors in high school. We’re not “living it up” and having the good times we did four years earlier. No, instead we’re going on interviews, struggling to find the one thing out there that will enable us to truly survive on our own.

They say most people don’t know what they want to do with their lives at 22, and we are here to completely back up that claim. Sure, we all majored in something-I mean, you sort of have to-but is this what we want to be doing for the rest of our lives? We don’t know. How can we? It’s not like we’ve been out there before.

All that excitement about independence when we were graduating has completely vanished. Independence scares us. Independence means bills, work, insurance, taxes, apartments and things we don’t even know about! Independence doesn’t mean parties and beer. It doesn’t mean taking a break from mom and dad or moving on to better things. No, we’re peaking at 22. Life is downhill from here.

Just kidding! Life isn’t really downhill from here. It might even get better. Being on your own can have its upsides, too – like – no more tests? Well, it’s a start.

So, if you’re in the same boat as all of us, don’t be too worried. As you can see, you’re not alone. You’ll get a job. You’ll be OK. We’ll all get the hang of things, and we might even learn to enjoy life on our own. If not, then maybe mom and dad will still have your room waiting.