You’ve finally made it. Graduation is approaching, you’ve taken your capstone classes, and you’ve landed your first post-college job.

Now, take a moment to consider that there are still a few things you may need to know before diving into the deep end of post-graduate life.

9. Learn to cook.

“Eating frozen dinner is going to get old real fast,” said Bonnie Lyons, an audit analyst at the Federal Reserve in Kansas City. With all of the options that college campuses provide for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it’s easy to get into the habit of relying on someone else to cook your meals. Unfortunately, meal plans don’t continue after graduation. Learning how to cook for yourself can be faster and cheaper.

8. Take a break.

“If you can afford it,” said Lyons, “take a few extra months off [after] graduation. I started less than a month after graduating.” The brain drain can become a problem after spending a semester job-searching and finishing classes, after which you graduate and jump into a new job.

“It’s OK to graduate and not have a job,” said Caitlin Golike, an arts administration major working for the Springfield Regional Arts Council. Just because you graduated in May and do not have a job lined up for June does not mean you are a failure.

7. Your GPA is important, but it isn’t everything.

“Once you reach a certain point in your college career,” said Kaitlyn Den Beste, a finance major currently working as director of the Drury Enactus team, “your GPA does not matter nearly as much as you think it does. Getting the most of your education by soaking up and understanding valuable knowledge is a lot more important than whether or not you get a B versus an A on a test.”

However, grades should still be a priority.  “All other factors being equal,” says Laura Morsch, a writer for CareerBuilder.com, “an employer is more likely to choose the candidate with stellar grades, but that doesn’t mean a so-so student can’t land a competitive job with a prestigious company.” Generally speaking, the majority of hiring managers say their cutoff is 3.0.

6. Networking was easier in college.

“Networking is so much harder in the real world,” said Lyons. “Take advantage of as many connections as you can while you’re still at [college], and once you start working, make an effort to join some sort of outside activity.”

Alissa Bird, a finance major now working at BKD Wealth Advisors, said she wishes she would have spent more time focusing on personal connections rather than being stressed over class.

Jada Graves, the Careers editor at U.S. News, explains there are still great opportunities to consider networking that you may not have considered: sports events, charity events, weddings, beauty salons, and places of worship.

5. Learn to think for yourself.

As grim as it sounds, when you graduate, your spoon-fed days are over. Many of your professors probably try to teach you to think for yourself in class; however, it is clear that professors are the experts. After graduation, no one is there to tell you what news stations to watch, who is an expert of this or that, or if fact is actually truth. “Our human intelligence and ability to think for ourselves is being insulted and left to rot away,” said Dillon Crow, a web-imaging specialist for Bass Pro Shops.

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, authors of “Blur,” advise us to ask ourselves: What am I hearing? Is this the whole story? Am I to believe this person? From where did this information come?

4. Don’t settle.

“Take a step back and evaluate your life,” said Crow. “If you haven’t been living for yourself, it’s time to make a change.”

Life changes should be expected. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics surveyed and found that nearly 75 percent of college graduates held eight or more jobs by the time they were 44. Nearly one-third of the 75 percent had held 15 or more jobs. Don’t expect to retire from the first job you get after graduating.

Golike discovered that firsthand: “Your first year out of college will be rough… maybe the first few years. But just like you’re not going to have figured out what you want to major in the minute you graduate high school, you are not going to have your life together the minute you graduate college. Maybe your first job turns out to be a huge flop, and you have to go frost cupcakes for six months until you figure it out or an opportunity comes along.”

3. Living is expensive.

“Save some of that graduation money,” said Lyons, “Moving away is way more expensive than you think, and it’s good to have a cushion.”

While your first big paycheck is exciting and having an actual salary may be exhilarating, your financial responsibility will also be much greater, especially for those who lived on campus for four years.

“You have to have initiative,” said Golike, “and be prepared to start at the bottom, not make a lot of money, and pay your dues.”

Kerry Hannon advises college graduates to learn a bit about personal finance, write out a budget, try to eliminate your debt as quickly as possible, create an emergency fund, take advantage of retirement plans, and make sure to have health insurance.

2. Soft skills are more useful than hard knowledge.

It seems the importance of these valuable soft skills cannot be reiterated enough by graduates. “In my experience,” said Den Beste, “soft skills are everything, and they will get you a lot farther in the world than hard knowledge. …If you can’t make a phone call or present yourself in a confident and capable manner, you’ll find things will be a lot harder.”

According to the 2013 Job Outlook released by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the top four abilities that employers look for are of the soft-skill nature:

• verbally communicate with persons inside and outside the organization
• work in a team structure
• make decisions and solve problems
• plan, organize and prioritize work.

These aren’t skills from your major’s curriculum. “You’ll be shocked to find out how much good writing and confident speaking can get you,” said Lyons.

These soft skills seep into daily life, too, she added. “Even though you have a degree, you don’t know a lot of the practical things that your parents always took care of, [such as] PMI [personal mortgage interest], taxes, that the air filters in the furnace have to be changed, how to find a doctor, where’s my record of vaccinations, etc.”

1. College is not the best time of your life.

You’ve probably heard someone exclaim, “College was the best time of my life!” Twenty years from now, you may look back and agree with that statement. That does not mean that your life is over upon graduation.

“College is just four years out of what you hope will be a very long life,” said Golike. “They are awesome years, but they are not the best years of your life. Don’t start to think that for a second.”