I am a big fan of Tucker Max. His reputation precedes him, but read in between the lines of his stories and what he has to say is legit, at least to me. One of his stories his second book begins with an observation of the difference between college life and what you do after you graduate:

“The biggest difference between school and work is not free time, not responsibility, not money, not even access to college bars and parties. The biggest difference is hope. When you’re still in school, no matter what is going wrong or how bad it gets, you know it’s going to end. You know school will eventually be over and you can move on to something different. You know you have another chance, because your “real life” is still in front of you.

It’s not like that with work. Once you are done with school and get a job, that’s it. That is real life, that is what you’ve been working toward in school… and if you hate your job or what’s going on with your life, there isn’t an obvious end to it or an obvious escape. I mean, besides alcohol. We were slowly realizing that the “real life” we’d chosen really fucking sucked. A lot.”

Awesome. When I first read this, about a year ago, it didn’t resonate as much as it does as a second semester senior. I look at people who have been in the work force for a while aka “adults” a lot differently now. When I am 30 (the age of what I consider to be a real adult), I want to say that I was brave enough to pursue my true passion (whatever it turns out to be) and not settle for the path of least resistance, and that I told every arm chair critic who thinks I am doing things wrong to fuck off. For other college seniors moving on to the next endeavor, reading this may help.