Sooner or later all of us have to do it.

I know as a currently jobless senior, I may not be the most qualified person to speak on this issue, but that’s also part of the reality of life. I also want to apologize at the onset for writing a more somber article, but I feel like I’ve earned it, and one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned in four years is that there are some times when you need to be serious.

Now whether you’re a freshmen or have two weeks of school left, you’re still staring down the barrel of responsibility, and it’s closer than you think. Sure, you can always take a year off to travel, or do grad school, but you’re really just postponing the inevitable. When you graduate, you’ll have spent at least 16 years of your life being a student, and now you must turn around and begin contributing back.

I’m not there, but I know what that future looks like. It’s no more going out on weekdays, it’s paying bills and keeping a budget, it’s making all new friends and then having to drive out to see them once or twice a week. It’s a family, a house, kids and petty gripes about your job and coworkers. It’s gradually cutting down your “me” time more and more. But that’s it.

There’s no alternative reality, not really. Sound boring? Of course it does, that’s because you’re still in college. That’s part of maturing: changing your expectations for life.

One essential lesson to understand is that you control your own reality. How else could it be that starving families in southeast Asia and Africa can still be happy? If you don’t take this attitude with you, you will forever be a victim of your circumstance, and soon you and all around you will not take any pleasure in life.

While we’re on the subject of contentment, I want to touch on ambition. We’ve all been told since the age of five that we’re the cream of the crop, and we certainly would not be at Vanderbilt if it weren’t for ambition, drive and hard work. But we’ve also been fed the great American lie: “You can be whatever you want, you can do whatever you set your mind to.” Nonsense. Even if I’d practiced from the age of two, I’d never be an NBA player.

This is the kind of Dinsey sugarcoating that has America believing that we can all be athletes, glamorous actors, rock stars or CEOs. You won’t, but it’s okay. Sure, it’s great to want to make a meaningful impact on the world, to leave a legacy, to make something of yourself. These are noble desires, and lead to the betterment of others, but are not what’s most important. This is a tough and sometimes impossible idea to grasp in the most materialistic culture where everything is simply about getting the most for yourself. So what? Let’s say you outstrip Donald Trump and Gates combined. Who cares 200 years after you’re dead?

Not to be morbid, but the true virtue is to be charitable and selfless, love others and enjoy each moment for what it is.

—Justin Poythress is a senior in Peabody College. He can be reached at j.poythress@vanderbilt.edu.