Ask any one of my friends and family… I was straight up pissed off on graduation day… and not just because I was tired from having stayed up all night drinking with our neighbors.

My entire senior year I was in denial about the fact that graduation day was looming. I was having the time of my life, why on earth had I made the careless decision to pass all my classes and end up with exactly enough credits to graduate on time?

Careless. Really, really careless…

I’d say I kept a pretty level head throughout the fall semester by simply ignoring the inevitable, but by the time spring rolled around I was in full-blown panic mode. Even though I was one of the lucky graduates who had secured a post-grad job months before graduation, I still had absolutely no desire to “grow up” and leave my friends and the cushy life I’d been living for the last four years.

During the last few weeks of classes, as my college life came to a close, I did everything I could to soak up every little moment of college-ness possible. Don’t get me wrong, I had an awesome college experience with memories and stories like you wouldn’t believe… but looking back now, I wish I had had that “soak it all up” mindset throughout my entire four years instead of just the last semester. I wish I hadn’t spent so much time focusing on my relationships with boyfriends and getting worked up and angry over stupid, immature drama within my sorority that inevitably dubbed me “THE chapter bitch.” I wish I had chosen to enjoy every moment I had with my sorority sisters and best friends and let all of the little things (that seemed monstrous at the time) go.

There’s obviously nothing I can do about those regrets now and if anything, realizing those things about myself and my college experience has made me a better “post-grad adult.” I don’t get angry and worked up over silly things anymore and I don’t turn down opportunities to spend time with friends without a good, legitimate reason. I have a much more positive attitude about everything in my post-grad life and I “carpe diem” way more now than I ever did before.

I won’t lie… it took me a solid year and a half to snap out of dreaming about going back to college before I was able to truly and fully enjoy post-grad life. I mean, hello! Paychecks and not living under my parents’ roof with my parents’ rules?! Really freaking awesome! Now that I’m in this place where I absolutely love and appreciate post-grad life, I can’t imagine ever really going back to college no matter how many times over the last two years I might have said I wanted to!