After four years of post-secondary education, I can’t help but sit back and wonder how time flew by so quickly.

Next week, I’ll be heading off to my work placement, where I’ll get a taste of what it’s like in the “real world.”

I’d be blatantly lying if I said I wasn’t terrified.

I can compare this feeling to what I remember from my first day of kindergarten, when I hid behind the bookcase for the majority of the day and cried. Although I don’t think my placement coordinator would be very pleased if I took that approach this time around.

But in all seriousness, as scared as I am about the prospect of graduating and getting a big-girl job, the excitement overwhelms my fears. Up to this point, all I have ever known is life inside the education system. After so much schooling, I am looking forward to the challenges and changes the working world will present.

I am hoping that my placement will be the perfect transition into reality because I will see what my chosen field is like, within a comfortable learning environment. For this reason, I think placements are a great way to transition students into what would normally be a big leap after graduation.

So to all my classmates heading out into the great beyond, I wish you the best of luck. We likely share a lot of the same fears, but the next couple of weeks should be a learning experience like nothing we’ve yet experienced.