I graduated college a semester early to get a headstart on my career. In December 2024, I was done with school. No more discussion posts, replying to my peers. No more. I had to double up on classes, start searching for post-grad jobs in Michigan so I could move in with my then-fiance, and get all my ducks in a row to make sure that when I left SHU for the last time as a student that I could focus just on me, my career and starting the “big-girl” life that I have always dreamed of.
Why did no one tell me that adulting was going to be the best thing that I would ever do for myself…but also the hardest?
I applied to tons of jobs. I heard no after no after no until I took a long shot and applied to the local news station in Traverse City, Mich., where my now husband is stationed with the U.S. Coast Guard, and 8 minutes from our apartment.
I was sitting in my 8 a.m. History of Broadcasting class and got an email from the News Director at UpNorthLive News in Traverse City, asking to have a “quick call.” After a few more virtual interviews, I accepted the job as a Digital Content Producer halfway across the country, 2 months before I even graduated college, and to start a week after my last classes of the Fall semester.
At that moment, I realized that I had to pack the last 20 years of my entire life away in my car, and drive 14 hours to Traverse City to start the next chapter of my life.
Fast-forward to now, since I graduated college, I became a real journalist writing for UpNorthLive News, 7 & 4, which are NBC/ABC channels, reported for the first time and had my video and photo footage in our shows on TV, and I got married to my “highschool sweetheart.”
I found a love for the most mundane things, like grocery shopping with my husband, decorating my apartment with little found treasures, and even things as simple as cooking dinner on a Sunday night.
Through these last 7 months and the start of my adulting, I have looked back on all the time that has passed and think of all the things that I could have done in college.
Should I have gone out more and lived the “college life” that everyone talks about? Should I have not gone into college in a relationship? Maybe I should have joined more clubs and got more involved. Will I feel like I missed out on the last semester of college? But no. None of those things were in the plan that God and the universe had for me. There was a reason I didn’t do things differently and made the decisions that I did, and that all led up to where I am now. All things fall into place when they are supposed to.
If I never went into college in a relationship I would not have traveled as much as I did, experienced all the things I have, and I would for sure not have taken the opportunity to live 844 miles from home, in Michigan, right now.
Take the chance, don’t stress over the things you can’t control and let it all be put into God’s hands.
I think the point I am trying to make is that you don’t have to do what you THINK you are supposed to do in college. You don’t have to stress to be the person that fits in with the stigma of a college student. And you for sure don’t have to graduate early to find a job like I did because in the end, you have control over the path you take and whichever path that is, it’s what was planned for you.
And as Billy Joel said, “Slow down, you’re doing fine.”
