The Submit Button Didn’t Set Me Free
College didn’t give me a degree. It gave me a system I had to rebuild when everything fell apart.
I clicked submit.
That was it.
No confetti. No applause. Just… silence.
But I didn’t sit still.
I went straight into entrepreneurship.
No breaks. No vacations.
No deadlines either.
And that’s when the real ‘what now’ kicked in.
Because when there’s no timetable,
no assignment,
no “ma’am I’ll submit by midnight” pressure—
every passing second feels like I’m late.
Late to build.
Late to arrive.
Late to live.
But here’s what I realised—
College gave me structure.
It gave me form, pace, rhythm.
A reason to show up — even on the worst days.
It didn’t care how I felt. It cared that I showed up.
- If my leg was broken
- If I hadn’t slept
- If life was spiraling
It still expected me at 9AM.
That rhythm became muscle memory.
And when it vanished?
Everything wobbled.
For a while, I fell off.
I wasn’t consistent.
I missed deadlines I set for myself.
I lost the tempo.
And that’s when it hit me:
Structure isn’t a timetable.
It’s a choice.
If I don’t create it, I dissolve.
The submit button gave me closure.
But college gave me standards.
- Professionalism
- Punctuality
- Resilience
- The ability to stand up and deliver — no matter what
That doesn’t show up in a transcript.
But it shows up every time I do.
So yeah, the degree was just a document.
The real legacy?
A system I had to rebuild —
because it was built into me first.
💭 What did college actually leave behind in you — besides the paper?
DM me on X @vineetneo or just sit with the thought.
#BreakTheLoop