So You Graduated College, Now What?

I know what I’ll do! I’ll pay thousands and thousands of dollars to go to college, get my degree in four years in something that I love, and then I’ll get a great high paying job doing what I enjoy. Or not? In high school, your pushed to go to college to get a higher level education so that you can make more money, but they don’t tell you how.

Instead you go to a high school that preaches about college and in your senior year, it finally hits you. You need to decide what you’re going to do with the rest of your life at the age of 18. I mean, of course, it’s not unreasonable for you to decide where you want to work for the rest of your life, right? WRONG. Regardless of your uncertainty, you pick a college and decide on a major. You spend four years, working hard and partying harder.

That’s what college is all about right? Learning how to multitask? Well, while you’re trying to get through finals, apparently you’re supposed to be setting up internships that probably won’t offer you a full time position, and creating a LinkedIn account to network with other professionals only to, again, not receive a full time position.

It’s now a year after your college graduation and you’ve been trying to find a job with your measly liberal arts degree to find that you’re completely shit out of luck.

So where did you mess up? Did you go to college and get your degree for something that’s useless instead of necessary? Did someone not warn you of this? Should you have chosen something you hate in order to land that job and the salary you desire? The bills are piling up and you’ve already started paying on your student loans and the stress is becoming too much to handle. All of your other friends/classmates are in their careers and it’s really causing you to doubt your abilities and your self-esteem is taking a HUGE HIT. What’s next?

RELAX. RELAX. RELAX. You’re going to go through a bunch of interviews, jobs you apply for just to apply for, and A LOT of rejection emails from the HR office of the jobs that you actually did want. Take this time to figure out what it is that you truly want and aim for that.

Your friends/classmates don’t have the opportunity that you have now. You’re able to take that trip, start blogging, go on a date, drink alcohol on a Tuesday, and WHATEVER YOU WANT. You have the freedom and stress free clear mind to DO WHAT YOU WANT. While you’re figuring out what you want to do and taking your time finding “that” job, you’re able to enjoy it while your friends/classmates and struggling to find time to wash their laundry.

You’re young, enjoy it. You’ve graduated college, celebrate it.

Love who you are, ALL OF YOU. You have all the time in the world to be like everyone else.