Yes, just a few days ago I had my second grad day, this time with the degree that permits me to be in my dream profession.
I had an awesome group of people come together to congratulate me this week (and 5 years ago), and I sincerely hope everyone feels that love on any and every grad day they may experience. So this week, I wanted to congratulate my graduate readers by responding to the people who don't exactly help with the celebrating.
As awesome as it is to have my degree, it's also terrifying and daunting, especially with everyone saying the classically really encouraging things people say to graduates like "welcome to real life" and "you think you're an adult now? well, just wait" and "my soul died when I entered the work force". I felt accomplished and excited most of my grad day, but I also had a slight existential crisis staring at my degree at about 9pm in which I pondered my choices and shovelled ice cream cake into my mouth. It's pretty hard to be excited when your soul is scheduled to die six days after you graduate. When I graduated high school I received messages of the same lovely nature like "this weekend will soon be irrelevant to you" and "you'll be miserable in university if you thought this was hard" and of course "you're still just a kid". Well good thing our dresses were shiny; we needed quite a bit of distraction to enjoy the day after those kind words.
Luckily those words never got the chance to rain on my parade, because I don't let anyone take any day, whether it be national pancake day, Harry Styles' birthday, or graduation day, away from me if I'm excited about it. When I had made it through high school that was fabulous and I deserved a fabulous time. You better believe I was excited to rock that dress and celebrate moving in to the next part of my, whatever that was going to be. And especially after completing post-secondary, I borrowed the hottest pink item of clothing I could find, strapped on some new heels, and strutted down that stage like I just won ANTM! The people who have said the rude phrases mentioned above are probably just bitter about their own graduation; maybe they got dumped by their grand march partner or wore the same dress as their arch nemesis or got a degree and hated their job, which all suck, but still gives no one the right to make me feel unaccomplished.
And so, here are my very sarcastic responses in hand-on-the-hip snapping fashion to each of these words of encouragement. Okay admittedly this post is a little snarky and sarcastic, but that's because the people who have said these things to me weren't trying to be helpful, they were trying to make me feel crappy, so they deserve a bit of sass:
1. Welcome to real life.
Well I think I was welcomed into real life when I got my first job at 13 years old, made payments on my first car, continued working two jobs in high school while playing sports and being in several plays per year and busting my ass in classes to get in to University, then moving away from my family at 17 to a city I was completely unfamiliar with, moving away from my family again at 18 when my mom was hospitalized for a serious accident, working shitty part time jobs to make rent, volunteering, and yet again busting my ass in full time classes for 5 years to finish off my degree with an A average. I'm certainly no expert on life yet, but I'm excited to learn about it. I'd like to write a letter to your welcoming committee, because they're doing a shit job on keeping up with their residents.
2. You think you're an adult now? Well, just wait.
I'm 22, so, well.... yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm an adult? I'm not a model adult, I have not yet experienced the entire world at the age of 22, but thanks to my kick-ass parents and all of the other fabulous adults around me, I'm well prepared for taking on what remains to discover about "adult life". More importantly, I'm prepared to learn about the things I'll experience in the full-time working, mortgage-paying world, and I know I'm going to need help and make mistakes sometimes. Sorry, but I kind of figured out life isn't always easy a long time ago. Are you part of that aforementioned welcoming committee?
3. My soul died when I entered the work force.
Seriously guys, A TON of social workers have said this to me-- nice, huh? Granted, social work is an extremely challenging profession, but just like any other job, you can still have time for the good things. When I left high school, life got even better. When I left University and started job hunting and finding the building blocks to my dream jobs, life got even better than even better. No, I can't do whatever I want Monday-Friday, but my life isn't over. I can still take vacations and now I can get paid while I do it! If I dreaded having a schedule and responsibility and limited free-time, I wouldn't have entered this profession, let alone made it through school, and I honestly feel terrible for people who didn't know what they were in for, but I'm not one of them, and if I was, these words sure wouldn't help!
4. This weekend will soon be irrelevant to you.
No, the excitement in my life did not peak at my high school graduation, and I'm grateful for that. But even five years later looking at my high school grad pictures, I enjoy quite a few of the memories from that weekend. I guess some things are irrelevant, though: I've completely forgot anything I was stressed about, or anything that upset me, and admittedly a lot of pieces of the grad party night, but that weekend was fun, and you telling me it's stupid didn't make it any less exciting before or memorable after!
5. You'll be miserable in University if you thought this was hard.
I did struggle in high-school, especially with math and chemistry, but guess what? Social Workers don't have to take math or chemistry, and despite the myths and the reasons my math teacher tried to give me for not giving up on math (contradicting of course her telling me I sucked at math months earlier) I didn't even have to take stats. I was never miserable in University! I had to work hard, but I enjoyed the work I did, and I took a special interest in my classes because I got to pick them.
6. You're still just a kid.
Please see answers 1 through 5 *hair flip*.
So to all graduates, past, present, and future, stay excited. Life is going to be as good as you make it, and trust me, as a second-time graduate and full-time mess, I'm here to tell you that you can find success and happiness without having ALL of your shit together. Despite the negativity, I had so much fun at my second grad, and the ice cream cake helped stop my existential crisis. Thanks so much for reading my sass this week, please suggest a mess, and don't forget to sparkle!
xox
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