If you want to go to graduate school

Great. Now let’s say you do need to take it. Unlike the ACT/SAT, which a lot of people didn’t bother studying for back in the day, the GRE tests you on what Educational Testing Services think graduate students should know before grad school. This means you will actually have to study. Remember probability, slope-intercept form, and all those equations from math you thought you were done with years ago? Remember analogies and memorizing flash cards and five paragraph essays? You better hope so, because the GRE brings it all back with a vengeance.

There’s four sections on this bad boy:

1. Verbal – Vocab. Lots and lots of vocab. Go buy some flash cards right now – they will be your best friends soon.
2. Quantitative – Not calculus, thank gosh. But they’re talking all the way back to math you learned in middle school. This includes arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and quantitative comparison.
3. Analytical Writing – Haven’t taken a writing class since freshman year? You may want to refresh your writing skills because you’ll have to write two essays in one sitting: one argumentative and one issue.
4. Experimental (maybe) – This experimental section might show up on your GRE exam, but it won’t count toward your score. ETS wants to do research on future questions on you, and they unfortunately do not let you know. So basically, you might end up taking two Verbal sections and not knowing which was the random experimental part that didn’t count. I was devastated to hear that I would be wasting my time in this manner, but there’s really nothing we can do about it.

Deciding which study materials to use is entirely up to personal preference. I bought three books to study with because I hate math, I need a great score on verbal, and I didn’t want to shell out the extra cash for a Princeton Review or Kaplan prep course. The reviews on Amazon really helped me understand how effective a book would be or how boring it might be before buying it – some are definitely easier to read than others. If it’s not your learning style, you obviously won’t learn as much. Oh, and make sure you’re buying a NEW book if they promise access to free online practice tests, or else the codes might not work!

In terms of freebies, all Windows users out there can also take advantage of free PowerPrep software from ETS. You should start reading the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or sign up for Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day emails to help expand your vocabulary. You can always do prep classes if you want to spend more money and if you need a more structured study schedule, but with a calendar and some willpower you should be fine!

One of the most important things you should do is familiarize yourself with how the GRE works. It’s a Computer Adaptive Test, which means that the difficulty of the questions change as you answer questions correctly or incorrectly. To get a feel for the test, you should do as many electronic practice tests as you can! For example, you need to be more cautious at the beginning of the test because those early questions have greater weight in terms of your score.

In terms of scheduling, you should know a few important facts:

• Most test prep materials recommend 1-2 months to study a few hours everyday
• Remember that you can’t take the GRE more than once a month
• On average, it takes about 4-6 weeks for scores to get to the grad school of your choice
• Your GRE scores are valid for five years after taking the test

Once you’ve got the test scheduled and you’re prepared, here are some tips for actually taking the GRE:

• Arrive to the testing site early and bring a legit photo ID
• Know which schools you want to send your scores to (the first four schools are free!)
• Bring a snack – four hours is a long time to go without food when your brain is working that hard
• Be careful on the early questions!
• Pay attention to time
• Answer EVERY question – on the GRE, guessing is always better than nothing
• Use your scratch paper wisely

Most importantly, don’t stress – they’re testing how well you can take a GRE, not how smart you are or how successful you will be in a master’s program. Grad schools realize this, and typically take your GRE score into account along with your GPA, resume experience, and personal statement.

Hope this helps you get ready for the GRE! What’s helping you study?

My parents were less than thrilled with my decision. I had such a promising path! How could I just give up on everything I’ve worked for?! Like everyone else in my family, they didn’t understand why I started applying for Teach for America and researching programs for teaching English overseas.  They were constantly questioning me (“What are you going to do once you graduate?” and “What are you going to be when you grow up?”) but I honestly had no idea and I didn’t want to jump into a graduate program and spend all that time and money when I couldn’t answer those most basic questions.

So I researched. And researched some more. And along the way, I started reading blogs about volunteering after college and found myself intrigued. Volunteering was something I did infrequently in college and when I did, it was either for a class I was taking or part of my job. So I took the plunge and became an AmeriCorps*VISTA when I graduated in May.

I had a cousin who did AmeriCorps*VISTA several years ago and he suggested that I look into it.  When I started my research I felt a connection to what VISTA stands for: Volunteers In Service To America.  VISTAs are different from other volunteers because we work the administration side of different nonprofits or government agencies that fight against poverty. In return for our work, we do not receive an income but a living stipend (which ironically puts us on the same level of those we serve: poverty).

While making the decision and joining VISTA was easy, it was deciding on where I would serve to be the problem. Would I stay in Milwaukee and be around my friends and the boyfriend I had? Or would I do the smarter decision and move in with my parents and save money? The flip side of moving in with my parents involved me having to move across the country to New Hampshire, a state in which I knew no one and had no friends. I knew I would only be making a very, very small amount of money and I knew I couldn’t afford the rent and utilities in Milwaukee, so I moved in with my parents. Now here, I’m working at both a private school with a huge emphasis on volunteering and a nonprofit that helps keeps students in the public school system on track for college.

But while my experience is very focused on the work that I do, it’s so much more. My placement is part of an umbrella program, so I am connected with other VISTAs in the area. Over the past months I have gotten to know quite a few of them and we’ve become good friends. We have a lot in common off the bat, they know what I’m going through on a daily basis and they’re generally wonderful people. So much so that when my relationship ended (the distance due to my move was just too much) and I missed my friends from college, my new VISTA friends were there for me and got me back on track.

As for the day to day, it differs; I can be busy working on activities for tutoring or meeting with students. Some days I sit at my desk and just work on a database, calling nonprofits about their volunteer opportunities. And, like any job, there are days that I just sit and dink around online.

Moving away from where I had lived for four years was really hard. Losing my relationship in the first couple months was harder, and not having my girlfriends around made it worse. But the friends I have made through VISTA are some of the greatest people I have ever met. We have been put in a situation where we make little to no money and are sometimes doing very tedious work.  We make the most of it and with these friends I am doing so much more with my life than I would have if I had stayed in Milwaukee on my original path. I may have had to make some sacrifices and I may be about as far off the beaten career path as humanly possible, but I love what I do and I feel good doing it.

It’s all even made me reevaluate what I want for my life and figure out just where I want to be when this whole thing is over. Will I continue working in nonprofits? Maybe. Continue on to grad school and get a Masters in Education? Possibly. Follow my dream of seeing the world and teaching abroad? Most definitely.

Being an AmeriCorps*VISTA has pushed me out of my comfort zone and changed who I am for the better.  For all of you college seniors who are unsure of where you want to be next year, I seriously recommend looking into giving back. (Editor’s Note: And here are a few more reasons why!) I know that this is where I am supposed to be for a year and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to find my passion and give back to those who aren’t as fortunate as I have been.

[A special thanks to reader Allison Keough for sharing her story with us. You got a story to share? Email us!]

Photo courtesy of AmeriCorps.gov.

I never thought this day would come. I’ve spent countless hours taking prep classes, practice tests, doing timed sections, going over my mistakes, cranking out logic games, reasoning with myself over logical reasoning, and reading about some of the most obscene topics for the reading comprehension section, all in preparation for this day. A day I’m not sure I’m mentally prepared for; practice vs. the real deal … well, it seems so much different.

However, I have to say – I’m relieved it’s here. In fact, you could almost say that I’m pumped and ready to go. I’ve worked my ass off, and I’m ready to see the fruits of my post-grad labor. Over the last few months, there have been a million other things I rather do than answer assumption and inference questions, but I’ve sucked it up and knocked it out.

Although I’m one of those Nervous Nancy’s when it comes to test taking, I’m trying to not let my nerves get in the way of everything I’ve accomplished since July. When I first started studying for the LSAT, I never dreamed that I could do as well as I have been doing. In fact, I never anticipated that I would spend as much time as I have. But the process has been rewarding, and it’s made me want to go to law school even more. If anything, I feel like this process has taught me that I really can do anything I want, if I just dedicate the right amount of time and effort into it.

But what will I do after the LSAT? Oh yeah … apply to law schools. So, the process really isn’t over yet. Thank goodness though because what would a post-grad do without something to keep her busy? And speaking of busy, I have four days left – so I might as keep up my crazy schedule because at this point, it’s do or die, sink or swim — and I’m sure ready to swim through the sections of this test until I’m blue in the face.

Wish me luck!

With that in mind, I’m going to do something I’m completely unqualified to do. I’m going to offer you ladies some advice. Well, not so much advice as guidelines. Guide posts? Rules? Err…just keep this stuff in mind as you attempt to make it through your senior year.

Don’t be so focused on the future that you forget about the present.
During your senior year, it’s easy to get swept up in the idea of what comes next. Grad school applications and GREs. Internships and job interviews. Every time you turn around you’ll have to do something else to prepare for next year. And if that’s not stressful enough, everyone will be asking you about it every step of the way. What are your plans for next year? Will you be applying to grad school? Shouldn’t you have decided by now? Over and over again people will be bombarding you from every angle with questions about the future. But every once it a while you just need to remember to block them out and breathe. Sure it’s your last year of college, but you’re still in college. Don’t forget what that means. You’ll never be able to figure out exactly where you’ll be a year from now, so focus on the here and now instead.

Embrace the cliché college experience.
Go to every college hosted event you can, because it’s the last time you’ll ever be able to experience that event as a college student. I don’t have the numbers on this but I’m pretty sure that the current students tailgating in the parking lot during homecoming enjoyed the event a whole lot more than the alumni watching the game. The same goes for the pep rallies and the movie nights and everything else you stopped going to after sophomore year. Give it one more go. Think of it as a warm up for senior week.

Check your program requirements. Then check them again. Then once more.
The last thing you want is to be stuck taking your required math class spring semester of your senior year. (Oh the horror!) Or even worse, forced to take a summer class or stick around for an extra semester just because you’re short a few credits. Talk to you advisor. Look over the classes you’ve taken and the classes you need to take. Will that easy A class be worth it if you end up with the worst professor ever the summer after you were suppose to graduate?

Learn to let go.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t having some trouble excepting the fact that this is my last year as a college student. But denying that won’t make it go away. So even though I just told you not to focus on the future, now I’m going to tell you to make sure you don’t forget that it’s there. As difficult as it is for a control freak like me to say this, you need to learn to let go. And whether that means giving up your co-curricular responsibilities to focus on your internship, or skipping the party to start studying for your MCAT, make the sacrifice. Let it go.

Get an internship.
And one of the best ways to let go is to have something new to focus on. Not only will an internship or a job look great on your resume post college, but it’s also a great way to earn some real life experience. Thinking about going to law school? Get a job at a law firm. Being in an office environment will help prepare you for future jobs and allow you to see the inner workings of the career you’re considering. It’s the perfect opportunity to make sure you’ll be happy with that career before committing a significant amount of time to getting there.

What about you ladies? Any tips for making the most of your senior year?

Click here to follow Jenn’s other ups and downs of senior year.

Everyone has a story. And while my post-grad journey has so far revolved around moving to California, interning, working odd jobs here and there, and studying for the LSAT to attend law school next year, I know that my story isn’t a typical after-college route. In fact, I don’t think there is a typical after-college route, which is why life after college is so exciting and so scary. It varies from person to person and it’s difficult for every individual post-grad to gauge their success when there’s nothing to compare it to.

Sometimes I like to pretend that I’m living a different post-grad life than I am. I even sometimes think about marketing post-grad stories to Bravo or MTV because everyone I know seems to have their own story. Some lives are more stressful than others, and some are boring. Some people are still strictly obsessed with college and continue to spend the majority of their new existence going back. Some post-grads are completely different than a year ago.

But they are all interesting in their own right.

I know my personal experience, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking and wondering about other post-grad scenarios. For example:

The Working Girl: Since I haven’t joined the work force, I can’t help but dream about what it would be like if I was working 9 to 5 every day, sitting in a cubicle, wear high heels and black dress pants, and eating soggy sandwiches for lunch. And then I wonder if any of it would be like that anyways. Would I be happy or bored or content? Who knows.

The Grad Student: Imagine if I was writing this CollegeCandy series as a first year graduate student, whether it was for law school or some other graduate program, I wonder if I would be swamped with work or bored with my classes. I’m sure I would be writing about my classmates and the transition into a higher education setting outside of college. Would I even consider myself a post-grad if I was in school?

The Gap Year: And then there’s the daydream of taking what is known as a gap year abroad. I could have spent the summer in South Africa with my sister, traveling through Capetown, having monkeys on Table Mountain open my car door and dig in my purse. Or I could have gone to Thailand and done some undercover journalism there on the sex trafficking. Or I could have gone to Europe and ate my way through one country to the next, putting on twenty pounds as I tore through croissants and crepes and macaroons and pretzels.

The lessons I would learn in each of these scenarios would be different, and the ups and the downs would vary – however, they would still exist regardless of the reality. While college generally was a more hands-on experience (with professors and parents and friends and Greek life and grades influencing everything), I love post-grad because it’s just me flying solo and teaching myself as much as I can. But really … I wish I had a TV show to live vicariously through my other fellow post-grads.

While the reality of my life right now could have been a variety of different options, I can’t help but think this route is the one for me. And the route that other post-grads go down is the one for them. But wouldn’t it be cool if all our stories could be collected? Seriously … if those 16 and Pregnant girls can get their own hour, I think every post-grad story is worth an hour too.

So, my fellow CollegeCandy readers, we may not have our own reality show, but I still want to know … what are you planning your post-grad to be or what is the reality of your post-grad life today? We all have a story to tell, and I want to hear yours!

AHHHHHHHH!

Hi everyone, my name is Jenn. And I’m a grad school application survivor.

The experience was traumatic and tortuous and for a while there I didn’t think I’d make it through.  But now that I’ve seen the other side I thought it was time I shared some of my lessons learned with you. (While editing out the banging my head against my desk, pulling my hair out, staring at a blank computer screen as I read the application essay over and over parts.)

This is not a full proof guide to getting into grad school. In fact, it’s not a guide to getting into grad school at all. (I may have finished the applications but I haven’t gotten into any of the programs yet…) These are just some tips, things I wish I knew before I started the application process. So I thought I’d pass on my infinite wisdom to our lovely readers…

1. Make friends with your professors. And no. I’m telling you to make him your beer bong partner. Or a friend with benefits. But make sure at least one or two of your professors know who you are. Start with your advisor. They’re supposed to have a vested interest in your academic career so sharing your goals and aspirations with them, and asking them for advice about graduate programs is a great way to start talking about the application process. Once you’re comfortable with them, then you could start fishing around for recommendation letters. Some professors might even offer. It’s much easier than awkward e-mails or a post-class request when they have no idea who you are. I promise.  

2. Take the GRE the summer before you senior year. Even if you don’t think you’ll be applying to graduate school, do it anyway. This was my original plan. And then I started to have doubts. Should I put myself through the tortuous process of studying and stressing when I wasn’t even sure I would be applying to graduate schools? I didn’t. But I should have. Because then I ended up prepping for the GRE in the midst of a million other things that needed to be done. Take the GRE. And take it early.  

3. Double and triple-check the application requirements for all of your schools. No two schools have the same application requirements. I can assure you of that. Some require the GRE. Others require the GRE and a GRE subject test. Then there are the ones that don’t even require a GRE at all. But those often require more than one personal statement. Or writing samples. Or an absurd number of recommendations. Make a list of programs you are applying to. Then, underneath each college write down exactly what you need for each application. Take it one school at a time, one step at a time. Anything else gets far too complicated, far too quickly.

4. Go to open houses. It may seem useless to carve time out of your schedule to listen to admissions counselors tell you everything you already knew from reading their brochure, but the feel of the school is something else entirely. Walk around. Talk to some of the students. Check out the housing facilities if you plan on living on campus, or the public transportation facilities if you plan on commuting. You could be taking classes on that campus for upwards of two years, so make sure you like it before taking the time to apply.

5. Ask for help. This is something I hardly ever do. But it’s something I really need to learn to do. And you should too. The graduate application process can get really overwhelming, really quickly. Having someone there to offer you some guidance can only help. Once again, your advisor is the perfect person to talk to. Don’t forget once upon a time they were undergraduate students applying to masters and PhD programs and they made it through okay. They can tell you what to look for and what to avoid and help you make sense of it all. Take advantage of that!

I leave you with a little bit of wisdom, and lots of luck…

Click here to follow Jenn’s other ups and downs of senior year.

I still haven’t written my personal statement yet.

You know, the one that more or less says “explain yourself in 700 words or less.” The one that asks you to take the last four yours of your life and make them fit in an essay. The one that asks you to be creative, and witty, and unique, while also demonstrating your intelligence and artfully adding in all of your accomplishments. The one required for college admissions, scholarships and awards, and, in my case, the one required for grad school applications.

Yep, that one.
I just can’t seem to write it.

The truth is, I’ve never been a big fan of personal statement essays, or as grad schools like to call them, statements of purpose. (Because changing the name will differentiate them from the nightmare that was applying to college.) They all sound exactly the same, and everyone says what they think the admissions board wants to hear, and everyone talks about family history or motivation or their many deep and meaningful reasons for pursuing the career path they’ve chosen. And basically, what it comes down to is one giant cliché. And I hate clichés. And so do the admissions boards, or at least, that’s what they claim.

The personal statement is important, they tell you. We want to know more about you that what appears on your transcripts, they say. Be creative. Be unique. Be yourself. But also include all of your accomplishments in the past four years, any significant events you may have been a part of you, why you want to go to this school, what you can bring to this school, and why we should even bother to consider your application. Yes, that leaves lots of room for me to be unique, doesn’t  it? The questions are cliché, so the answers are going to be cliché. And as I’ve mentioned, I hate clichés.

But that’s exactly what I end up sounding like every try time I try to tell these people who I am and what I want to do with my life. Because the thing is, I have absolutely no clue who I am or what I want to do. Sure, I’m a college senior. Yes, I have things I’d like to accomplish. But those goals are more along the lines of “make it through 18^th Century Literature,” “improve my beer pong playing abilities,” and “stop watching Private Practice.”  They don’t exactly detail my grand post college plans, and that’s mostly because I don’t have post college plans.

So I should probably focus on the “who am I” part of the essay, right? That would be a great idea, except I just can’t seem to figure out how to go about doing that either. I’ve never been a big fan of labels, because I like to think that people are a bit more complex than that, and I don’t think the admissions board wants my age/height/weight/hair and eye color stats chart. So what are my opinions? Childhood memory that changed my life or distant relatives that have inspired me to become the person I am today?  No on those counts too. I just don’t believe it’s possible for someone to understand who I am based on a 700 word statement, or any statement for that matter. People just don’t work that way.

So what exactly is a girl to do?

Maybe I should just link them to this post instead? I mean, it’s honest and real and so full of such flattering compliments for the entire application process and everyone it involves that I’ll be admitted immediately.

OK, so maybe that’s not my best bet, but what is?

Click here to follow Jenn’s other ups and downs of senior year.

For what seems like forever, I have told everyone from friends, random people at parties, teachers, and family members that upon graduating undergrad, I would head off to graduate school to a M.A. or Ph.D. program in English literature. In fact, during my first year of college while my classmates were mostly concerned with figuring out their major requirements, I obsessed over taking the right classes designed for graduate school track students, finding the right internships, and doing everything the right way towards getting to graduate school – ruling everything out that did not fit in the perfect English grad school box I put myself in.

As you can imagine, it’s a rather rude awakening when everything doesn’t fall into place like you planned for it to.  Looking back, the moment I realized that my plans were not something I really 100% wanted to do anymore was during a conference meeting with my thesis advisor. She asked me why I wanted to attend graduate school. I was silent. I had no answer. I sputtered off some generic – the “I’d like to advance my studies in literature” excuse. But it felt so fake, so fabricated, and hearing myself say it bothered me. I didn’t like the way it rolled off the tip of my tongue. I didn’t like the way it made me feel about where I wanted to go in my future.

There is a huge problem when you don’t really have an answer as to why you are doing something major like applying to graduate programs, and this started the downward spiral of my graduate school plans. Another red flag was my honors thesis project. Like many seniors, I was completing a sixty-page thesis project (I was working in the area of girls’ fiction in children’s literature). I picked the topic myself, but not even a month or two into the project, I hated it. I wanted nothing to do with what I was writing and saying and researching. There I was working on something very similar to what I would be doing in graduate school, completely unhappy. Not good, right?

Although that little voice in the back of my head (you know the one that tells you to go to class even though you don’t want to, the one that tells you to order just one more drink at the bar, and the one that tells you to run away from that creepy guy in the frat basement corner as fast as you can) was telling me over and over again that graduate school wasn’t for me. I didn’t listen. There were so many times that voice was shouting at me, but I just ignored it because it was out of bounds from my “future plans.”

Looking back, I just want to yell at myself and say “How could I not have listened?” I mean – Hello Charlsie, wake up! None of the schools I was looking at actually interested me. None of the subjects I wrote about as projected graduate study topics even remotely fascinated me in a level that I’d want to dedicate years of studying towards. Nothing I heard about graduate school from professors and friends in graduate school amused me (in fact, most people that went off to graduate school in English have told me how unhappy they are or have quit in the middle of their degrees). Even the GRE exam, which I had to take for grad school admissions, meant nothing to me – it was just a pain in my side. Again, how could I not have listened?

It took me almost a full academic school year to listen, and I didn’t start to grasp that until after all my applications were paid for and sent out (talk about an expensive disaster!). Although I can solidly say that my love for all things English is undying, I can also say that my heart, body, and brain are just not into it like someone should be if they want to go off to graduate school. I felt like I would be selling myself out.  Luckily for me though, coming to terms with life not going as planned was a blessing, because it saved me from something I didn’t want to really do.

They say hindsight is 20/20 but luckily, I’m not making the same mistakes as before. For the first time, it feels like I’m actually genuinely focused on something that I want to do – rather than what I thought I should be doing. I’m one of those very structured people that has to plan everything from A to Z, so to learn this lesson that I can’t control my own future when it’s not something that is meant to be – especially when it’s something I don’t want to invest myself in – has been definitely worth learning.

If I continued with my plan to continue on in English, I feel like I would have ended up hating it. Now, I have not only left myself room to grow and explore all things in the world of writing and literature on my own terms instead of academia, I can stand on my own towards bigger and better choices such as law school – something in which I feel like I will have tons of room to grow!

Even though getting into law school is going to be a bitch, and the LSAT process is going to be one of the toughest things to tackle in my life, it feels so good to actually say “I want to do this and that’s why I am.” And it’s for the right reasons. Instead of what felt like signing my life away to something I was wishy-washy about, I feel invigorated that I can work through this next part of my life to get to what I genuinely want.

Although this kind of all feels like some overwhelming John Mayer song lesson to me, it’s been one of the best lessons I could learn in my life, and I feel lucky to carry it with me through my post-grad journey. Who knew that plans not working out could be one of the best things to happen to me?

Certainly not me, but then again – I wouldn’t be writing this if I did.

Wait, they’re getting married!?

Do those Fit Flops really work?

Nike does rainboots. But did they do them right?

This is a little TMI, Snooks.

Is Kim Kardashian cougaring it up??

Is grad school worth the investment?

[We're following one post-grad as she grabs that diploma, packs up her college life and heads on out to the big, bad world. There's a lot of change comin' her way and one big challenge: The LSAT.]

So, it’s crunch time. From this point on until October 9^th, my life is really about one thing and one thing only – the LSAT. Of course, I will still have everyday life to live, but from this point on my post-grad life really is going to be dictated by what I am convinced to be as one of the most evil tests in all of existence.

And I’ll be the first to admit – I am terrified. I’m absolutely shaking in my Rainbow flip flops at the thought of one test having so much power over my life.

You gotta do what you gotta do though, right? And what I have to do is do well enough on the test in October, so I don’t have to take it again in December, and come out with a score that satisfies me enough to get into a good law school for Fall 2011 admissions.

A lot is riding upon this exam. If you aren’t familiar with the whole “getting into law school business of admissions,” the LSAT is the end-all-be-all factor in admissions. According to Top Law Schools.com, “Your undergraduate GPA and LSAT score are the two most significant factors that admissions committees look at. The fact that a four hour standardized test carries as much, if not more, weight than four years of classes should tell you how important the LSAT is.” Yikes!

I realize the importance though, so as my dad likes to say during business calls when he’s serious about taking something to the next level: “It’s time to bring out the big guns.” First things first, I have enrolled in a Kaplan LSAT Prep class that meets one to two times a week for three and a half hour sessions – taking me through every single question that I could face on the wicked test. It is going to be intense, with hours of homework and test prep, but Kaplan promises that with their help and a lot of hard work, students will be successful with their program (in fact, they guarantee it or you can get your money back or take the class again for free).

With my faith in Kaplan, I have come to realize that I need a lot of faith in myself too. Since a lot of my practice and studying will be outside of class, I need to rely on myself a lot. Taking the LSAT and going to law school was my decision, and I want to be successful in it, but I can’t help but be a little intimidated. That’s normal, right?

Although I may be a little scared (OK – a lot, but it’s kind of like first-day-of-school jitters … I’m sure it will cool off after I attend my first class tonight and actually take a full exam), I am very happy that I decided to commit myself to this. A lot of post-grads are so unsure of what they want to do, so knowing what I want to do and knowing how hard I have to work makes me feel grounded in a situation that has had me feeling like I’ve been dangling six feet off the ground. But even though I feel like this experience will keep me focused and grounded, it doesn’t mean it won’t be hard. In fact, I think this is going to be one of the hardest and trying things of my life.

With that said, it’s time for me to face my biggest fears on the post-grad journey: Ready or not, here I come!