Dear (almost) Graduates,

So you’ve done it—you’ve made it through grueling years of hard work, papers, never-ending stress, and endless coffee runs. You’ve made friends, acquired mentors, maybe you’ve even become a mentor to someone else, you’ve passed classes, taken a few losses, and found the answers to questions you never even knew you had. You’ve argued with Sallie Mae representatives, made countless trips to the cafeteria, and have, at one point or another, pulled an all-nighter in the student centers. You’re now in the home-stretch. You’ve got just a few weeks left, and a lifetime ahead of you. Once finals are over, the robes have been donned, the parties have been planned, and the diplomas received, what happens next? While, on the individual level, that answer might vary, the truth of the matter is, you adjust. So, what *is* next?

You might have plans for another degree. You might have plans for getting a job. You might have plans to lie on the beach, drinking from coconuts for the rest of your life. Whatever your plans for the future might entail, one thing is incredibly certain: you must be prepared for change. You must be prepared to move on from the life you’ve built during your undergraduate career, because your life will not be the same.

In the real world, you will be challenged. You will find yourself tested much harder than any exam taken in the Testing Center. But more importantly, you will find yourself progressing through life like you’ve never known! The road ahead will be long and, often, frightening. You will yearn for the simpler days when your biggest concern was an assignment due for a class, or what type of coffee you were going to get to make sure that you were awake enough to absorb the material for tomorrow’s test.

With all this in mind, do not hold on to the past. Cherish the times spent at UMass Boston, but do not hold yourself back from becoming the person this degree has helped you to flourish into. Moving on and allowing yourself room to grow and progress further into the person you wish to become is the reason you chose a school like UMass Boston to begin with, isn’t it? The constant change of the campus, the faculty and staff, the course content—it’s all prepared you for the constant change of life. In reality, preparing students for the real world has never been easier for any other university.

So how *do* you prepare for the real world? The truth is, there’s no real answer to that. Maybe, you breathe deeply and just acknowledge that life will change. Maybe you spend your summer, or whatever weeks you have left before starting a new job or moving to a new place, deeply immersing yourself in learning all about and preparing for this new lifestyle you’ve chosen for yourself. Or, just maybe, you take this time to relax and revel in your accomplishment of graduating with a degree from UMass Boston. Whatever it is that you do, remember that you are brave and strong, and you must never be averse to change. Never forget your time here, but move on from UMass Boston. It, much like this university and your years spent here, will serve you well.