Tasha Adams is a senior (hopefully) graduating in May. She is terrified of all things graduation—failing a class and not meeting requirements, walking at the ceremony, not finding a job after receiving her degree. “The undaunted undergrad” is an account of working through last-semester fears and not screwing anything up while preparing for life after graduation.
I’m finally here: my last semester at college. I always knew I would get here eventually, I just didn’t think I would get here so quickly.
After attending three semesters of college right out of high school and then dropping out, I took five years to figure out what I wanted to do with
my life.
During those five years, I found a steady, well-paying job at a bank where I worked 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. I had holidays off, an awesome health insurance plan and a 401k. It was a pretty nice setup and I could have stayed there until retirement. But it wasn’t satisfying.
So I came back to school in 2009 and as the semesters went by, my commitment to the bank dwindled until I finally quit in September.
And while the university won’t classify me as a “traditional student,” that’s exactly what I am. I have a 12-credit workload, I am working an on-campus job and I live alone in an itty-bitty apartment only two miles from campus.
As I begin my last semester, I don’t have misty memories about how I got here or a good laugh about the tests I bombed.
Nope, things are still too real for reminiscing and I have new things to worry about.
Instead, I am kicking myself for not studying enough for tests or for half-assing research papers. I am sick to my stomach about passing my classes this semester because if I don’t, I am here for one more semester. I am too intimidated to even think about making money after graduation because I have no idea what I want to do with my degree now that I (almost) have it.
This is my last chance to get these things right and I’ll be damned if I don’t come out of this semester with that fancy piece of paper, a job and slightly unscathed.
