Moving Forward

I still can’t believe it’s been a week since I graduated from my dream school! The world has been moving ten times faster since I finished my last commencement. Already I’ve started working full-time for minimum wage as an intern 15 minutes away from a modest room that I just officially moved in to last night (the modest room is in a frat house — and so far, it's not so bad). The idea of growing up has become a reality all too soon, and it’s staring right in front of me with loans from studying abroad and a lot of ongoing bills.

Many of us college graduates are already hustling to get to the top, me included. We always want to keep moving forward, a race to see who can be successful and pay off those loans and bills the quickest. College was competitive enough, but the real world, I’m beginning to see, is even more cutthroat than I could have possibly imagined. But moving forward doesn’t have to be a race. We can all go at our own pace, as long as we get a chance to reflect and breathe.

If I’m going to be honest, I didn’t get a chance to do all of the things I wanted to do in college. I didn’t get into the major I wanted in the first place. I didn't get any fancy honors, just an English B.A. and Film and Television minor to add to my resume. I didn’t get enough experience as I wanted in the spaces I dedicated myself to. I didn’t get a chance to really know the people I was constantly surrounded with besides their names. These are not regrets — they are pieces that I see myself reflected in, but was just unable to pick up for myself.

Despite all of this, I am still proud of what I have accomplished. I graduated UCLA with a GPA above a 3.0, when I started with a 2.8. I performed at Royce Hall one year, and wrote and directed the Pilipino cultural stage production the year after. I met amazing people, some that I know will be people I can still talk to even if age and time has separated us. I was a peer counselor for nearly 200 incoming freshman students. I learned how to dance, even if it was just as a beginner. I lost myself, but found bits and pieces of it again in nine different countries when I took a leap and studied abroad by myself.

If there's one piece of advice I can impart on current college students, it's that college is not the place for everything that you want to happen to you. It’s the place for everything that should happen to you. It’s the place to fall apart, to learn and grow, to become anew. It's a place for rediscovery. If that aligns with what you want, then all the better. But once that happens, life will finally come together. That’s when we can move forward.