What it is Like in the ‘Real World’

When you’re living at home with your parents, you can’t wait to not be living at home with your parents anymore. So you go off to collegeand get that taste of sweet freedom that you have been longing for since adolescence. Then when the party of college is over and it is time to hit the real world, you’ll be begging your parents to move back into that room you waited so long to be away from.

Many students, myself included, do not realize just how hard it is to make it in the “real world.” When I recently moved to Illinois as a senior in college, I thought I had everything gured out. I had a plan, a budget, where I was going to live, what I was going to do for work, I had all my ducks in a row, or so I thought.

When I got here I realized that being an adult isn’t all it is cracked up to be. Instead of freedom, there are bills. Instead of eating junk food for every meal, there’s slower metabolism. Instead of going out and doing fun stuff all of the time, there is an empty bank account.

You don’t realize until you are out on your own just how right your parents were when they encouraged you to start saving and added, “You don’t know the value of a dollar.” Living on your own is so much more expensive than you think, and even if you have the money, you don’t have the time, because you are working 40-plus hours a week.

So my advice to you this week, is to come to terms with reality. Life isn’t one big party, and things will not always work out how you want or expect them to. So make sure before you take a huge leap, you are first able to stand stable on your own two feet.