<p>My daughter graduates in a couple of weeks and is sad that college is coming to an end. She doesn’t have a job as of yet, but that doesn’t to be what is stressing her out the most; leaving her friends, that have become family is what is bothering her. Living in a dorm for 4 years is not what one wishes for, but my daughter has enjoyed her communal living. To be able to go to a friend’s room at any time of the day or night for studying, tv watching, partying or a good ***** session is something she really is going to miss. While she was excited to leave high school and start anew in college, this stage of her life is really going to be missed.</p>
<p>When I bring up plans for graduation weekend, my daughter doesn’t want to talk about it. Talking about graduation makes it all real, and she isn’t ready for this part of her life to end. I know she will enjoy graduation and is not going to fall into a funk over this, but at the same time she is like Peter Pan, she doesn’t want to grow up!!</p>
<p>When she moves on, she may find herself living with roommates again as so few can afford independent housing right after school. Emphasize this and maybe she won’t feel quite so much like her old life is being totally lost.</p>
<p>We kind of avoided any talk of graduation, other than the logistics because I knew what it would be like for D1. Interestingly, after so much sorrow and woe, she is now living with one of her old roommates, and the two of them want to join two other friends from college and share a place with the four girls (saves on rent as mentioned in #2). This was after she moved home for five months, before moving back out. </p>
<p>I remember our daughter saying she didn’t want to see us last May, because it made graduation a reality. Yes, it’s hard.</p>
<p>Give her a break… I was the same way about graduation… the last thing I wanted to do was graduate and move on without my friends. I didn’t have a job lined up right away and was moving home for a little bit. The night before graduation I went for a walk around campus at like 3 AM with a buddy of mine and I sat there crying because I didn’t want to leave. The actual graduation itself was fine… I wound up sitting next to a friend of mine at it… and after that my parents and sister came to my apartment to help me get the last of my stuff all moved out and I got really irritated with the entire family about it… I just wanted to take my time and gather my things and say bye to my friends and they were rushing me because they were hungry and wanted to go out for dinner… i didn’t get to say goodbye to anybody… not even my roommates… I really didn’t appreciate it. I honestly think that was one of the worst days of my life.</p>
<p>I go back like once a month to visit my friends who are still in the area… but there are quite a few people that I haven’t seen in years and i really miss them. the internet makes it easy to keep in touch… and a few of them are getting married in the upcoming months, so it will be sort of like a reunion of sorts. :)</p>
<p>But don’t worry about her, she’ll be fine and move on. I graduated four years ago but wound up with a good job and made new friends and moved on with life… and now i own my own house, have a nice roommate, and am dating the sweetest boy. :)</p>
<p>Ah, snowball, it’s hard to see them feeling down when it would seem to be such a happy time. S1 graduates on Sat. </p>
<p>He just told me on the phone that this week has been the worst week of his four years in college. He was in a car wreck(not injured but big damage to roommate’s truck) , his cell phone broke (Verizon gave him the huge run-around about getting another), his lease is up so is trying to move to new apartment, bills piling up with no income for a couple of weeks and one more paper to write (tonight…yikes). He graduates on Sat. and goes to work on Mon…no rest for the weary.</p>
<p>He hasn’t even had time to buy his cap and gown. </p>
<p>We’re going down on Friday. Hopefully things will have improved a little by then,
Hope your D’d outlook improves too.</p>
<p>“To be able to go to a friend’s room at any time of the day or night for studying, tv watching, partying or a good ***** session is something she really is going to miss. While she was excited to leave high school and start anew in college, this stage of her life is really going to be missed.”</p>
<p>There are reasons college is remembered as the best years of one’s life. All that freedom with responsibility only to yourself, so many likeminded people around… A good stage in life. As far as filters- we still easily remember the good times, but all of those exams, problem sets and papers…attend your child’s summer orientation- sleep in a dorm room with the bathroom down the hall and meals in the cafeteria, climb those hills… being the adult in your own home is nice.</p>
<p>I realized after I hit send that I had spelled the word b**ch (a female dog) and the forum would not like that!</p>
<p>My daughter is truly ready to become an adult in her own apartment/home; well only after a hopefully short stay with mom and dad! I did not mean this post to sound like I needed advice, more just sharing my child’s feelings. I have no worries about her adjusting; she just doesn’t want this life as she knows it to end! Having a sister around at all times have been fun for this only girl in our family!</p>
<p>Graduation will happen as she has mailed her invitations, dresses have been picked out for the different events, and job applications are sent while she looks for new openings everyday.</p>
<p>Yeah, sounds like you know she’ll be fine. It’s great that she was able to find a good match and enjoy her college experience and friends so much. I cried like a baby during the last few days of senior year…but then again I tend to do that with big transitions (did it again when I left a big job a few years back!).</p>
<p>I couldn’t wait to leave college senior year. I was done with it and ready to move on. Our D1 is already feeling a bit of it as a sophomore. She is very much looking forward to her study abroad to get a change of scenery.</p>
<p>I cried all day when I graduated from college. All day. And I was starting law school at the same university! But my heart was broken because college was nirvana for me. I knew it would never be like that again.</p>
<p>It was great when I started to work - no homework at night, I had most of my weekends free. When I was in college, I studied all the time. Everything at work made sense to me (actually felt smart), which most of the time I felt clueless in most of math classes.</p>
<p>What’s so happy about graduating? Other than the fact that one gets one’s degree, if you’ve been happy in college, graduating means moving permanently away from friends and other things that one loves. People who think about what graduation really means know that they’ll never be surrounded for years on end by those same friends. There will be many friends one may not ever see again or may see only for brief periods every several years. If one loves being in a learning environment, even if you go to grad school, you won’t be in the type of environment you were as an undegrad when the entire world of learning was your oyster.</p>
<p>So, of course many students are sad at graduation. It’s the end of a very special time in their lives and is the beginning for many of true adulthood – being fully responsible for themselves, and having to do things like work 8 hours a day while getting at most, a 2-week vacation a year…</p>
<p>Oh, I thought in the sentence “To be able to go to a friend’s room at any time of the day or night for studying, tv watching, partying or a good ***** session is something she really is going to miss.” that the 5 letter word was- well, you know- a fastener similar to a nail but available in slot head or phillips head.</p>
<p>They had to take my D kicking and screaming out of my womb. Why should I think it would be different when it came time to leave the college womb?</p>
<p>Reading all these posts about people being so sad about leaving college makes me really envious! I didn’t enjoy college all that much and just felt like I was slogging through to finish it. Part of the problem may have been that my boyfriend (now H!) was at another school, so I left on the weekends as often as possible to go be with him. His school was bigger, more fun, and cooler than mine was, and I actually do have good memories of time spent there.</p>
<p>Fortunately, I am getting to experience it vicariously with my children, though. S1 graduates next week from Texas A&M, and he is totally sad about leaving. S2 is a freshman at Chapman in CA and is trying to hustle himself up a summer job so that he can stay out there and not come home for the summer. He loves it there.</p>
<p>The worst identity crisis of my life came right after I graduated. I felt unmoored, aimless, sapped of ideas. And I had a job! I don’t blame OP’s kiddo for being depressed about graduating: it’s the end of a pretty sweet way of life.</p>