2026 Grad Feel Unaccomplished and Incomplete
Hello everyone! Congratulations to everyone else who's Class of 2026! I am an August grad who's gonna be walking at convocation tomorrow. I transferred to Rutgers in my sophomore year and I was super determined to have the best 3 years in college. However rigid unforgiving family obligations, mental health struggles, lack of social life and drastic body weight fluctuations severely contributed to the depression I ended up feeling. I am graduating with just barely a passing GPA. I am feeling extremely unaccomplished for when I walk tomorrow because I never made any friends, went to any party, or was a part of any club in my undergrad. I felt super detached from people and I wasn't really encouraged to be away from home and to essentially always be on call for those previously mentioned family obligations. I feel extremely socially stunted at 22 and I feel very upset that I couldn't do enough to have an active thriving social life. Its awful because these are the memories that people look back on decades later and I have none. No friends or significant silly stories to reminisce over. I've been told by people maybe I wasn't meant to find my people in college. But I never see anyone my age who doesn't have a large friend group, isn't involved in clubs, and doing well academically and in career aspirations. I feel that I'm just gonna graduate without having the full college experience and I feel really pathetic about that. I feel like such a massive loser and like my envy is palpable. Freshman year me would be super disappointed at what I became, and it upsets me every day. Even though I walk tomorrow, I don't graduate until August technically because I am still taking summer classes since I hadn't met the minimum credit load to graduate. I feel utterly defeated by how my college experience panned out. I don't say this to worry people about how their college experience will go. I want to stress talking to as many people as possible to increase chances of friendships, having a good support system, and prioritizing your academics at all costs. I just never see anybody who was a loner throughout college share such insight on how graduation feels for them. I just don't want anybody to end up like me. Please sign up for organizations no matter how trivial they seem, put yourself out there, you don't even need to be good at things just interest is fine. Keep friends close and do your best to mend any connections worth saving (this goes for family too). Mental health is just as important as physical health. Please have compassion and empathy for others cause it goes a long way. Anyways, I feel like I sorta lost the plot with this post. If anybody has similar experiences or stories, I would love to know. Just trying to raise awareness of one type of college experience.