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After 4 years of hard work, endless stress and a lot of partying, you’ve finally made it to the end of college. If all goes well, you’ll come out with a degree in your chosen field. The golden ticket that opens up a world of opportunities for you. But a degree is only one small part of what you get out of college. When that day finally comes and you graduate, you’ll also go away with these leaving gifts.
Fear
This is a gift that people don’t always expect, but everybody is going to get it. Finishing college is one of the scariest moments of your life. Until now, there’s always been a clear next step. You move from one school to the next, then onto college. But now, the future is unclear for the first time in your life. You have to start making decisions about what you’re going to do now. Chances are, you won’t have a clue and that can be incredibly scary. But don’t worry, everybody feels like that when they first graduate. People expect everything to fall into place as soon as they finish college but that rarely happens and that inspires a lot of fear. Just remember that it’ll come together in the end.
Debt
You should be expecting this one but people often underestimate just how much debt they’re going to be in after college. You’ve got all of the tuition fees, of course, but you probably didn’t expect to borrow as much as you did to cover all of your living expenses. The longer you hold onto that debt, the harder things will be in later life. Head over to https://debtconsolidation.co/debt-relief/ for some handy information on how to start clearing those debts as soon as possible. If you don’t, you’ll end up getting yourself into a worse financial situation and it’ll really hold you back.
Friends For Life
The first two gifts aren’t welcome ones, but there are a lot of amazing things you’ll get out of college as well. The people that you meet at college are going to be friends for life. Spending so much time living with people and sharing the ups and downs of college life forms a strong bond and, no matter where you all end up, you’ll stay in touch with those people for the rest of your life.
Independence
This is probably the most valuable thing you get out of college. When you first started, you’d been relying on your family for everything. Then all of a sudden, you’re out on your own and you have to do everything for yourself. Being thrown in the deep end forces you to learn how to cook and clean for yourself, manage your money properly, and so much more (check out https://www.fastweb.com/student-life/ for a list of all the other things you’ll learn). Those are essential life skills that will help you to be a more independent person and succeed after finishing your degree.
Most people go to college expecting a degree. Hopefully, you will get one, but you’ll get so much more on top.
