The Unknown

By Michelle Aguirre
Time is slowly dwindling with each passing day. The brutal humid summer would quickly fall into the brisk autumn that then transitions into the bitter winter. This semester would come to a close, final papers and projects would be complete, and walking across a carpeted stage would be the final time I would be an undergrad. It would also be the first time someone in my family held the title of a college graduate. But that would be months from now. Four Months, Sixteen weeks, One hundred and twelve days.

Days that would fly by in the blink of an eye, as I sit at the uneven desk and old lecture halls. Awkward introductions fill the time of the first week alongside the class syllabus. I look around my class and realize that my parents never had this experience. They’ll never know what it means to go over a syllabus– or what a syllabus even is. It’s crazy to really think that I am the only one ever to experience this semester after semester.

The first couple of weeks would fly by and before we know it, it’s October. The midway point would serve as a sort of wake-up call. To not only homework or missing assignments, but for the time remaining. Only eight weeks left of the semester, and it would all be over. The time will come to make a decision.

Graduate school had been a fleeting thought years ago. A thought that hadn’t crossed my mind in the past years. A master’s degree sounds like a future problem and I would cross that bridge when I got there. But here I am. Now it is time to cross that bridge. The active thought of scouring through programs again just to find one that pleases what I want to do seems all the more daunting than before.
Not to mention finding the “perfect” school to complete said program and do the whole process all over again. It is tempting. It’s Incredibly tempting to be able to put off further joining the workforce.

Maybe I should take an internship. Classmates around me talk about how fulfilling their summer internships have been. How it is the best thing they could have done to gain experience and how nice everyone is . Maybe an internship would be beneficial to make the next step not as bad. Maybe it could lessen the nerves that I have about the whole thing.

The thought of joining the workforce terrifies me. Even with four years of schooling, nothing could truly prepare me for corporate America. What would happen when the imposter syndrome kicks in, and I am left with nothing but a pit of despair and the feeling of being unprepared? So, maybe I’ll go to graduate school. Of course, for the experience and hope to reach the next tax bracket, but to further push back “the real world.”