Stop.

Whatever it is you’re doing, you don’t have to do it. Stop filling out graduate school applications. Stop taking the biochemistry classes you hate. Stop sitting around wasting time.

There are very few things in life that people must do. Those things include: dying.

Even that wasn’t necessary for certain religious figures.

Maybe it’s just me, but my whole life seemed to be culminating toward getting my bachelor’s degree in something. I hadn’t thought much further then that until a few months ago when I realized that senior year was fast approaching.

I decided to either go to graduate school or get a job, because that’s what everyone else was doing. I settled on law school or moving to a larger area and working there. I was proud of myself.

But now I’m eight months away from graduation, and I’m doubting those decisions. The truth is, I’m worn out. I don’t really think I want to go straight into the wonderful world of (even more!) education and work.

Instead of saying to myself, “You always do this, it’s just a phase, continue as you were,” like usual, I stopped. I realized that I don’t have to do things because they’re “good things” to do. I should just do things I like doing, even if they’re a little irresponsible.

Everyone should realize this! There is no reason at all to wake up at age 40 wondering why you wasted 20 years in a bad job or why you never got that degree that you secretly dreamed of having.

And don’t say that there’s nothing else out there for you.

There are niche graduate programs available, such as forensic anthropology at the University of Tennessee, where students research human body decomposition on the “Body Farm.” Thousands of organizations both at home and abroad need volunteers – ever heard of the Peace Corps? Dozens of foreign work visa programs are out there, like the Australian “Working Holiday” visa, which workers ages 18-30 can use for up to a year.

The point is this: each of our lives will come to an end at some point, maybe sooner than we’d like. There is absolutely no reason to get stuck in a complacent rut when it’s so easy – especially as a college student or new graduate – to do anything anywhere with anyone and any group for however long.

Don’t end up on the other side wishing you’d made that trip to Egypt or gotten a job teaching English in India. The time is now, and time is finite.

Go.

E-mail Taylor your post-grad plans to [email protected].