Life after LMU

When I think about my future beyond my undergraduate career at LMU, I instantly become overwhelmed by anxiety. Anxiety due to due the uncertainty and doubt that the concept of the future carries. In high school I created a plan. My plan was to graduate high school, go to San Diego State University and graduate, graduate from law school, get started on my career, then eventually get married and start a family. Well as life usually goes, I diverted from my plan by not attending San Diego State. As for the rest of the plan, I will be graduating from college this year and I will be starting law school in the fall, although I am not sure where yet. Those are the things I know for sure. Other than that, the rest of my high school plan is up in the air. Who knows if the rest of my life will go according to the plan I created for myself (I doubt it) but no matter what occurs, I know that I want to be happy.

“We only have a month and a half left before we graduate, we have so many things to do!” My best friend recites some variation of this sentence to me on what seems like every other day. My friends and I talk about graduation as if it is “the end.” But the end of what? The end of happiness? The end of being able to do whatever it is you want to do? Does entering the “real world” mean sacrificing the things about your life that you once valued the most? College has been the most amazing four years of my life (all 21 years). Spending quality time with my closest friends on a consistent basis, taking trips because I felt like it, taking a personal day to head to the beach, great professors, invaluable opportunities, and amazing unforgettable memories.

 I am very aware that I can’t live like I am in college forever, but do I have to give up values such as relationships, free time, and happiness to become a “real world” functioning adult? I like to think that I don’t, but many people disagree. There is often this notion that happiness and success cannot coincide. In an article by Dianne Wilson titled, “The Difference between Success and Happiness" she says that success is great, but not if it costs you your happiness. When describing one of the differentiating aspects of success and happiness, Wilson says, “Success is lying awake at night, worrying. Happiness is sleeping at peace.” I do not agree with this statement. It seems that many college graduates go into the world fearing exactly this; having to choose between a successful career and being happy. It is true that many people live their life in a manner that may insinuate that you can’t have both, but it is my belief that there are many steps that can be taken in order to do so. Peter Economy writes that some of those steps include living or working in the moment, tapping into your resilience, managing your energy, stepping outside of your comfort zone, and showing compassion to others. I’m not exactly sure what my future hold, but I certainly don’t plan for graduation to be the end.