Kind of hard to articulate properly, but with school, up until graduation, you know there are certain things you HAVE to do, practically speaking, i.e. you have to take the SAT's then you have to take certain classes for your major, then you have to go through finals every semester. It's a unique kind of stress, because it feels like there's no alternative, and it feels like failing to do the specific things needed to graduate would potentially fuck up the rest of your life. When you hit the real world, you realize that the next 50 years or so are really free form, you may get laid off, you may quit your job, you may change fields entirely, but there's a lot more leeway with how it all goes down, and in the back of your mind there's a little voice telling you if you really needed to, you could just get up and walk out of your job, and your life isn't over.