Your College Years Are Great, But They Don’t Have To Be The Best Years Of Your Life

College — the best four years of your life. That’s what everyone tells you, right?

I graduated from college a mere nine months ago, and something absolutely unthinkable happened: my life went on.

I thought for sure that the minute I crossed that stage and received the diploma, I was instantly going to be severed from the amazing life I had known for the past four years. No more Wednesday nights spent running in the rain to a house party where the floors were sticky enough to pull my shoes off. No more keeping my friends up until 1 am eating crappy food and drinking wine until our teeth were stained purple and we all agreed to skip class the next day.

My emotions run high — so I thought for sure I would be sobbing into a bag of pita chips every weekend, unable to move on without the things that made my life in college so special.

Every person in my life had led me to believe that life after college would be devoid of these simple and meaningful moments. But to you, soon-to-be-college-graduate, I beg you to remember that this is unequivocally, indisputably wrong.

After college you will go on to rent your first apartment, secure your first job, set up your utilities, learn how much toilet paper really costs throughout the year, and get really good at building a mean grocery list. You will have a roommate, and maybe if you’re lucky, it’s one of your friends from college. Even if it’s not, you will meet new people.

Your coworkers will introduce you to new bars and restaurants, and where you once had inside jokes about your crazy professor, you will now giggle about your crazy boss over cheap pitchers of beer and appetizers.

You will explore new cities. The cities your friends live in, and the cities that you just want to go to. You will see the world outside of the bubble of your college, and it will look pretty damn good.

You will now make a salary. You will learn to hate taxes (I mean seriously, why didn’t anyone tell me what a rip off taxes are??), you will learn to love having a 401(k) and security for your future. You will buy something for yourself, maybe a car or a nice dress, and know that it was bought with your hard earned money.

Wednesday nights will come and go, and you won’t be going to parties. Your Fridays and Saturdays won’t be filled with costumes, kegs, theme parties, peeing in bushes, water bottle roadies of Burnett’s and lemonade- and you will come to realize that it’s for the best.

You will spend some Fridays pampering yourself and getting an inordinate amount of sleep. You will wear sexy, fun, adult outfits out on your Saturdays. You will meet your friends for drinks at a place that serves good sushi, where you are surrounded by people like you. The world is buzzing with college graduates like you who are working their asses off to be successful and happy, and remember- you will be successful and happy.

I graduated college thinking that I would cry every weekend seeing the pictures of those younger than me enjoying the spoils of binge drinking and pizza at 2 am. Instead, I find myself happy for them. I am excited that they have these irreplaceable moments in college, but I am more excited that soon they will be like me.

They will be having a different kind of fun, a new kind of fun. The places and the people might be different, but the moments will not be. You will still get too drunk and do stupid things, have unforgettable nights with people just as crazy as you, and snuggle up to your friends in sweatpants and lounge around.

If you are freaking out about graduation, just remember this one thing: your life, too, will go on, and it’s about to get a hell of a lot better.