8 Morning Struggles You Only Understand Once You Have Your First Job

Remember those days in high school when you had to wake up early every day during the week? Well, they've come back for you now that you're in the real world. During college, you made your schedule every semester and did everything you could to dodge those 8 a.m. classes and the like. You wouldn't put yourself down for anything that was before noon. And when you could squeeze in an afternoon nap, you would snuggle up on the couch and snooze away without a worry in the world.

Now that you've landed your first job, you can't quite ignore your alarms. You have a train to catch at a certain time, and need to make sure you look stylish for that important morning meeting. Adjusting your body clock is definitely not easy, and the struggle to get up is so real every single day. Maybe just five more minutes?

Being a working girl means you need to channel all of your favorite business casual looks during the week. In college, you may have been known as the girl who always dresses comfy. But now you have to find skirts and dresses that stick to your style and also work for the real world runway. Those oversized sweaters and joggers just don't cut it at the office, and you want to look good so you can feel good when you're on the job.

Odds are, you've probably scoped out some new stores to shop at. You once considered them to be so "adult," but you're not a kid anymore and can totally rock that pair of heels on an average Wednesday. Scrolling through Pinterest for some outfit inspiration has become part of your morning routine. Finding new ways to wear that same blouse is seriously a struggle.

One thing that hasn't changed since college is your absolute need for caffeine in the morning. Maybe you're even like me and didn't drink coffee much before landing your first job. You're surely hooked now, and can't imagine going through the day without at least one cup of Starbucks in hand.

The days when you don't wake up in time to see your favorite barista are the ones that are really rough. You face your morning at work with a tired mind and try to plan your afternoon meetings around a much-needed coffee run. Truth is, when your body and brain are going all day and trying their best, you really could use the pick-me-up. Taking breaks throughout the day is essential to your self-care, but sometimes the struggle is that you can't slow down. Leave it to coffee to keep you going through that busy schedule.

Being in the real world means you have a love-hate relationship with meal planning. On Sundays, you probably do some cooking for the week so that you have dinner all set when you get home from a long day. And you might once again do some scrolling on Pinterest for new recipes that are easy and delicious, as well.

You wake up and grab something for breakfast, like a smoothie from the shop down the street or an everything bagel with cream cheese that's good on-the-go. On top of everything else you have to do in the morning, lunch is on your mind and the struggle is too real figuring out what you should pack to eat.

You might have to spend some time making a sandwich in the morning. And on the days when you're running late, you decide to buy something from the cafeteria or deli on the corner near your office instead.

You're crossing your fingers every morning that the commute will go smoothly. Whether you take the train into the city, or are facing loads of traffic, there's bound to be something that makes your morning just a bit more of a struggle. Maybe the subway is running late because of the snow, or there's a detour on your usual route. Ugh, nothing ever seems to go as planned — and you're feeling like the world is constantly stuck in a case of the Mondays.

On the bright side, your coworkers know your struggle so well. They probably have quite the commute ahead of them, too, and will gladly complain with you about the car that cut you off or how the bridge was so backed up. In those moments, the real world isn't so exciting, and it's much more — well, real. Leave it to your first job and morning struggles to make you totally feel like an adult.

Especially on Mondays, you've found that your inbox is loaded with so many emails. You log on expecting to have a full day's worth of work ahead of you, and it's always way more that you expected. You knew your first job was going to be fast-paced. You're in the industry for real now, and not an intern going on coffee runs and doing those essential errands. At one point in college, you thought your planner was packed towards the end of the semester and finals week. But this is a whole new level, and you're using all your highlighters and staying late to get the job done.

Learning how to balance your time and delegate tasks to other people has been a struggle, but also so essential to keep thriving in your first job. You want to always do your best and take in as much as you can, but some things can seriously just go to spam.

Getting social in the morning is a struggle, even when you're not working. And when it's incredibly early, the limit of coffee you could take in before facing a social situation just doesn't exist.

You're lucky that you've landed a work wife in your office who knows your coffee order. Sometimes she'll surprise you with an extra cup of your favorite beverage, and you can always count on her when you need a solid vent session. There's always at least one person in your office who is a morning person and is all too peppy at 8 a.m. You wish you could tell them to calm down in that meeting, but appreciate some of their enthusiasm when you can't find any yourself.

The struggle is real every morning, and realizing that you have to wake up and face it all again tomorrow is worthy of an emotional Pam moment. You understand now why people so look forward to the weekend, when they can wake up whenever they want and not worry about the stress of traffic or checking emails before even getting out of bed.

The real world definitely has a way of following you around during the week, and disconnecting at night is key to making those mornings much less work in and of itself. Now that you've landed your first job, you'll be figuring out how to love yourself in all sorts of new ways like that, because not every day has to feel like a Monday — and you also understand that the struggle doesn't always have to be so real.