The Next Step

**This was written back in December of 2012, a couple of months before my college graduation. This was also sent for consideration for a youth column but was not published.

I think I read a quote about choosing between what you love to do and what you need to do. If someone knows the quote I'm talking about, feel free to look it up and tell me because right now, I need that to be my life motto. (I’m thinking alone the lines of Dumbledore but that was more of choosing between what is right and what is easy)

In a few more days, I'll be entering the real world and for the past few weeks, I've already been on the trail of job hunting, printing resumes, setting job interviews, ironing my corporate attire and fussing over myself in front of the mirror. Needless to say, no one has replied back (yet, fingers crossed).

Ah, the harsh part of the next stage of life, after college, the real world. No matter what, the college you attended, the course you took, and the education you've had...nothing ever really prepares you from the giant leap from innocence to the reality of life. Not one single college student graduating this year is truly and ever prepared to step forward into the grown-up world of salaries, taxes, bills and work. Not a single one of us is prepared to tackle life.

I'm going to use another quote, but this time I know exactly what it is. Confucius said, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” But the harsh thing about society today is, it's no longer about what you love, but what makes the most money.

Hypothetically, I want to be an artist. But can that actually make a living. College students enter the last turn of their education life thinking that what they want to be is enough for society. But alas, the dream is always shattered, and the previous future writer, future musician, future accountant is no longer pursuing their dream but is satisfied with the highest paying job they could get.

Near the end of my college years, I found myself asking numerous relatives: are you happy with what you're doing? And I guess, the answer (which was the same for every person I asked) is something everyone would say as well. Their will always be ups and downs, days wherein you'd hate to get out of bed and go to work but then again there are days when you love to just get up and work, and do what you do best.

Life is not your typical storybook ending. It's never is. No matter what, life will always have its ups and downs. There will be rough days and there will be good ones. My high school life was like that; my college life was like that…of course my next life stage would be like that as well.

I still fear what's to come after my graduation in a couple of weeks. I guess the real fear here…is the idea of growing up. It’s no longer about thinking about grades and papers, it’s the ultimate pass or fail that students face every single end of a grading period…but grown-ups (for lack of a better term) they face this every single day, at an institution quite the same as a school, the organization they work for. Pass or fail is basically the equivalent of having a job or getting fired. That’s the ultimate pass or fail; it evolves per stage of life. In grade school you pass or fail, it’s all good, something you’ll look back on when you’re older. In high school, it becomes a bit important, something that you might regret in the future. In college, some students even have breakdowns because of the possible chance of failing one subject; because that basically decides what happens in the next stage. Work, you fail, you lose everything (and I don’t think that’s an exaggeration at all).

I guess the clichés are true in the end, life is the ultimate test and passing or failing cannot be given a number. The pass or fail is all up to the person. Is he living a life he loves or a life he hates? I have a life ahead (hopefully, because you never know when the real end of the world may take place) and the fear of failing life (doing something I hate) has been plaguing my thoughts up until the days that lead up to my graduation. But why should I let that hinder me from moving forward.

So come at me, graduation and job interviews and what not. I’m not ready but I will most certainly not hide in fear. As a popular Disney movie puts it, keep moving forward.