There's an age-old expression that goes something like “When you fall off of the horse, you just dust yourself off and get back on it.” Well, today I've taken a fall. After working for four years to earn a degree with summa cum laude honors, which involved sacrificing the majority of the fun parts of college for the sake of academic rewards, I've found that my mentally exhausting efforts in school did not prepare me for the world as I thought they would. Many people in my position would feel as though they had been struck a mortal blow, but to be honest, I can't say that I didn't see it coming.
All of the college classes in the world can't truly prepare you for dealing with many (if not most) real situations. What you need to be prepared is practice. That's something I didn't have going into my post-graduate life. Sure, there were class projects and tests, but those were nothing compared to what I was faced with. You can screw up a class assignment and the worst that happens is coming out with a lower grade. When you screw up a work assignment, your job might be in jeopardy.
Another thing that people say is that your worst critic is yourself. At times like these, it's incredibly difficult to shut out the inner critic as it spouts attacks like “You see? You're absolutely worthless and this is proof of it!” and “This wouldn't have happened if you had just tried harder.”. Sure, if I had spent countless nights studying solutions at home or skipping lunch break after lunch break to get a little bit more done, I may have performed better, but would it have been worth it? Would I have been working to support my life or would I have been working to support my work? In times like these, you have to tell yourself that you did what your situation called for, whether it was for the betterment of your position or for the maintenance of your own mental health. The consequences have already happened and they are just something to learn from. If there's anything true about life, it's that life is a learning experience. There are always new opportunities to explore, new people to meet, and new ways to improve yourself.
So now that I've fallen, the only thing to do is get back up.
