It’s a “tale as old as time.” One day, you're in high school, where each day is routine, spending time with friends, going from classes to extracurriculars, then home. This is a time in which you know what to expect and your biggest worry is passing that week's math test, getting the lead role in the school play, or making the basketball team. Then one day, all of your family gathers as you and your friends walk across a stage dressed in cap and gown, marking the end of a joyous, simple chapter.

Whether you are a senior in high school or college, the transition from one chapter to the next can be scary and full of unknowns. At the age of seventeen, you're still a teenager in high school, not necessarily thinking about life after high school, but then you turn eighteen. When you turn eighteen, you're preparing to leave high school and begin a whole new chapter.

This is a time when you notice a change in friendships and family dynamics as everyone is deciding the next step in their lives, whether it be college, the military, or entering the workforce. This is the time in life when everything you once knew changes. All of a sudden, you have to make big decisions, not knowing what the outcome of each option will be, so everything becomes a risk or gamble if you will.

Entering college can be an uneasy time. Entering a place where you don’t have the safety net of friends and family around you, and the familiar halls of high school to give you a sense of security. You are truly starting a brand-new chapter. This is when people either sink or swim.

College is full of unknowns, but it is also an incredibly exciting time. The first page in this new chapter is meeting your roommate, someone in the exact position as you. One of two outcomes may come from this meeting: you either get along and become close friends throughout the next four years, creating a long-lasting friendship, or you don't care for one another.

Your option at this point is to either try to get a new room assignment or live in an uncomfortable situation for the year until you can arrange to live with your friends, the ones that you make over the year. Then you may never have to speak to that roommate from freshman year again.

Over the four years, the frightening transition becomes a blessing as you have found a home away from home and made new friends. During this time, you have developed a new sense of belonging in new buildings, learning about the things you're passionate about. It’s normal during college to get caught up in the joys and the simplistic life, once again mirroring the comfort from high school, but once again, everything is about to change.

After finding your new comfort zone, you are met once again with the day when your family gathers as you and your friends walk across a stage dressed in a cap and gown. Only this time, you truly are entering a chapter that will take you out of that comfort zone entirely. It’s time to grow up and really become an adult.

Graduating from college means you are either moving back home or to a new place, much like moving to college, only this time you're not put in situations that make making new friends so accessible. You really are on your own without a safety blanket to fall back on. Each decision is up to you, and mistakes have real consequences now.

Will that passion for the career you have been dreaming about and working toward for the last four years become a reality, or will you find that the dream job to begin your career is the most boring thing you have ever done, and you don’t get along with your boss or your fellow employees? It may cause you to want to embark on a whole new career!

On the other hand, you get that dream job, move to a new city, or stay in the one you are in, and you find you love it; it is everything you dreamed of. The people are great, your boss is wonderful, and the work is interesting.

There is another scenario in which you have trouble finding a job after graduation and have to move back home. It is very difficult to get used to living with your family again. You have been independent for four years, and now you have to follow the rules of the house once again.

You also have to find a job, whatever you can find, so you can pay your bills. You may have to work as a grocery clerk or at a fast-food restaurant for a while, so the money keeps coming in while you are finding that job in the career path you went to college for. It may take a while to find that job, and meanwhile, you are just making ends meet despite living at home.

You try to get back in touch with your old friends from high school, but most of them have moved. Your family is patient, but after a while, they suggest that maybe you should think of another career. Your dream changes or evolves, you consider getting another degree or trying to save up to move elsewhere.

In reality, most people find a situation somewhere in between. The job is okay, but you know you won’t be doing anything really interesting for a while until you work your way up the ladder. It is the stepping stone to something better, so you are willing to work hard and wait it out. The boss is okay, the coworkers are fine, and you get along well. The new city is okay, but not everything you dreamed of.

It takes a while to get used to once again, new people and new places, new work situations and new adventures. Eventually, it all comes together, and you are comfortable in your new surroundings and experiences. You work for a while and then go on to find another job in your field, but a little higher up the scale. Then it is getting used to things all over again.

Overall, life is full of new chapters that are scary and exciting. You never know what the next page has in store.