In A Year's Time

There's always a period of lull before you return to school that gets you itching and excited to go. This lull period's especially significant because it is truly and really my final school vacation (december's gonna be hectic and easter's spent mugging) before I take my first step into the corporate world.
Already our priorities are shifting. Job applications are now more important than almost anything else. Interviews take precedence over school work. You start to realize that its really the end of your growing up process. Soon its gonna be you fending for yourself in a vicious, dog-eat-dog world where salary, promotions and position are all-important.
You never truly appreciate how your family, school and a network of friends have sheltered you from the wider world until you reach this point. In a year's time you'll either be financially-independant or better yet providing for your siblings. In a year's time, you will no longer have free rein of the relatively flexibility of school hours and lax discipline but will be bound by the rigid, long hours that defines the modern succesful corporate career. In a year's time, you'll find that you'll have almost no time for your friends, family and loved ones - you'll say to yourselves: "I can meet them next time", and "next time" sadly never materializes.
This is my worst nightmare and sometimes I fear its not too far off the mark.