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Are you ready for the Real World?
 Tracy Ust
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Anyone who knows me knows that I have one thing on my mind lately: graduation. It is just about all I think about, talk about, dream about and, lately, write about.
And, why shouldn't I? I mean, I will be a first-generation college graduate. My parents didn't go to college. Some of my aunts and uncles and most of my cousins did, but I am the first in my immediate family to go through this much school. It is a big deal to me and my family.
As I near graduation, though, I have begun to think about all I have learned here at SCSU. Have I actually learned enough to go out into the Real World and survive? I honestly don't think so, and I think part of the problem is that college life does not promote maturity.
Case in point: I have lived in the dorms for all four years of college. Granted three of the four years I have been paid to work and live there, but I have been in the dorms since the day I moved here. Dorm living does not promote maturity. First of all, I don't have to pay bills. I never have. I have no idea what it is like to have to write a check for hundreds of dollars a month to the landlord. And I don't have to pay monthly for cable, phone, electricity, parking, internet or anything else that people living in the Real World have to pay. Heck, I don't even have to pay for food! I have a nice meal plan that allows me to eat at Garvey without dishing out $5 or $6 a meal at a fast food restaurant or tons of money a month at the grocery store.
Next example: take sleeping habits. I slept until 11:30 Sunday. Granted, I did lose an hour of sleep due to that pesky daylight savings stuff, but still. I was up until 3 a.m. the night before. I hardly ever rise before 9 a.m., and when I have to it is a struggle. I cannot remember the last time I went to sleep before midnight or 1 a.m. (with the exception of this last week when I was sick with the flu).
On top of that, everyday is different. Some nights I can get to sleep before midnight, but the next night I am up until 3 a.m. If I get to sleep in one day, it's up at the crack of dawn the next. What kind of sleeping habits are these? No one in the Real World has sleeping habits as screwed up as these. Don't get me wrong, I love sleeping in, but I think once I get some sort of set sleeping pattern, I won't be as tired all the time, even if I don't get to sleep in.
My work habits are also not very Real World-like. This semester is the epitome of "senioritis." I don't have class Mondays or Fridays. How do you like that? I have four-day weekends! Plus, I don't have class until 5 p.m. Wednesdays. And, I am only in class four and a half hours on both Tuesdays and Thursdays. I mean, come on. Can I seriously get a job with those hours when I am out of here? I really don't know how I will survive eight-hour work days, every day. Yikes. Hopefully those regular sleep patterns will help me out there.
I got to thinking about all this Real World stuff this weekend when I wrote a check for the deposit on my new apartment in Minneapolis � my first apartment ever. The manager asked if the check would clear right away and I had to ask him to hold it until Monday so my Dad could put some money in my account (another un- Real World-type thing. How many Real World residents get money put into their accounts? )
All this non-training for the Real World aside, I have loved attending SCSU. There are so many things going on here, that even if I am not prepared for the Real World 100 percent, I am full of happy memories. I have changed my outlook on life, opened myself up to diversity, gained some training in my chosen path of life and made some great friends who I will miss tremendously when I step out into the Real World on May 11.
I am ready for the Real World, though. I may not have a job, or money, or know anything about how to live in the Real World, but I do know I am ready. I've got a good head on my shoulders, a new place to live and come May 11, I will have a nice, shiny college degree � something I worked hard for, even if the education came with no training for the Real World.
Tracy Ust can be reached at: [email protected]
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