The Transition

So I don't know about you, but graduating is scary business. Even if I knew exactly what I was doing after college, it would be a major transition. I figured you would feel the same way, so I decided to discuss with our good friends Lynn Walsh, Adam Fardy, Beth Beach, Chris Yonker and Sadie Roth to give us their fears and tips for overcoming them.





Lynn Walsh is going to get a job when she graduates, but hasn't found one yet. She said, and I can attest, that it is hard to live life, take classes AND find a job your senior year of college. Though she is nervous, she is confident in her education.





"The whole suspense of not knowing is hard but I would rather enjoy my last few weeks here," Walsh said.





This is all part of the emotions that have been hitting her as she plans to leave. She feels excited to see what is in store for her next, but she is sad to leave OU and all her friends and memories. OU has been a comfort zone for so long.





There are a few things she is doing to ease the transition along. She is setting up meetings with people, such as work-out dates with people she is leaving behind and those that are also moving on. Included in those lists are getting buddy or sorority families together one last time. She is also making sure to let professors who have had a great impact on her life know they are appreciated.





When Adam Fardy graduates next week, he knows exactly what he is doing for the next few years. He will be going home and working at law firm near his family's home in Cincinnati then going to law school. He is looking forward to enjoying the Cincinnati lifestyle and spending time with his family taking it easy for a while before jumping back into academia. Even so, he knows he will miss Athens.





"I'm ready to leave the school aspect, but this has been my home," Fardy said.





He is confident in his transition and his plans for the next few years, trusting that a year with his family will be great and doesn't believe the rumors that once you leave school you don't come back.





Beth Beach will be staying in Athens next year, as a staff member for Campus Crusade for Christ, a christian movement on campus. Though she is excited about her new role, she knows there will be an adjustment. Being on campus and not taking classes will be weird she said. Beach is also slightly worried about the change in role between her and younger friends and her and the staff members she will be working with. The role reversal will be interesting to come over, seeing the people she looked up to as equal partners in the movement now and learning how to navigate those changing relationships, learning how to make small talk and really build relationships with the other members of the staff. Beach will not have to do it alone, however, and is glad about that. A few of her friends will be joining her on staff.





For Chris Yonker, the symbolism of graduation is what is getting him most.





"I still don't see myself as responsible for anything," he said.





He also said that the assurances from family and friends is a deterent because it seems the same for anyone and not just him. Yonker is not sure what he is going to do after college, mentioning that he is scrambling for a job. He said he is sure his parents would love to have him back, but seeing as how he hasn't lived in his family's house since freshman year winter break, it would be quite an adjustment.





Sadie Roth agrees with Walsh that graduating is a sea of emotions- one minute she is ready to leave and the next she is sad and weirded out by the change. She said that she already feels old in Athens because she has been going to OU, first as an undergrad and then as a master's student.





To start making the adjustment, she has been attending sporting events, plans on taking one mroe good walk on East Green and has been cleaning out her apartment with her roomate. Roth has also started investingating the Akron area, her new neighborhood. She has been investingating apartments she might be interesting and looking into finding things she knows she will need to make the transition, such as a gym and seeing what the city has to offer. She decided to do this because she knows what she will miss most is the social interaction and knows she is not a good transitioner.



If these stories did not calm some of your axieties about the transition from college to wherever you end up, here are two websites that might give you some pointers and more reasurance: The Quarterlife Crisis-A One-Stop Info-Shop for Recent Grads and Beyond and Quarterlife Crisis: Official Site of the Quarterlife Crisis Books, both revolving around the book, Quarterlife Crisis, talking about the official transition to adulthood, accoring to the one-stop-shop site. That site (the first link) has links to different tips for the different areas of your life, and a message forum so you can discuss these issues with others. The second site has a link to statistics the authors of the books have gathered about the twenty-somethings of today. Hopefully those will help you put things in perspective as you pack up to leave Athens.