#PostGrad

After graduating there is the looming thought of WHAT NOW?  Some people plan out the next ten years of their life before they are handed their diploma on graduation morning...for me all I figured out was how to walk across the stage so I wouldn't fall on my face.  

I graduated in May without a plan, a focus or any inkling of where I might find myself in the next 6 months.  I moved back home to live with my mom and am still the most broke girl you'll ever meet (#PostGradProblems).  I guess in the back of my head I thought I would magically be handed a job because of my fabulous resume.  Well I was wrong.  The job hunt is a lot tougher than I imagined and there are a lot of graduates with outstanding resumes all competing for the same opportunities.  After the first three months of Indeed/Craigslist scanning and nerve racking interviews I still didn't have a job and felt like a failure.  I have this diploma, a $200,000 piece of paper, saying I am beaming with intelligence and ready for the real world but I still cannot seem to get my foot in the door anywhere.  I witnessed [what feels like] everyone landing new jobs and sharing the news via social media about how they received their "dream job!" and were "starting the rest of their lives!".  The best thing I can share on facebook right now is "Perks of living at home: mom still does the laundry."  

After 6 months [and no job offers] it started to sink in that no I am not a failure and I am ashamed to have ever had that thought cross my mind.  I have come to realize that I have no idea what I want to do with "the rest of my life" and am actually relieved I have not accepted a job because I know the right opportunity has not come along yet.  Don't get me wrong it would be awesome to accept a job, make $32,000 a year and move in to my own apartment but for me I know that I don't want a career right now where I'm sitting in a cubicle, cold calling people for 8 hours a day 5 days a week.  I am young and free and there is so much to do and explore before getting into the 9 to 5 routine for the rest of my life.
 I know now that I am not the only one in this position - in reality a slew of graduates do not have their first full time job yet/are still figuring it out [which makes me feel better].  It is very exciting to have an idea of what you want to do and have that fall into place & I am happy for all my friends and fellow QU alumni who have received job offers and have entered the work force.

In the past 6 months, with the ups and downs of Post Grad life, I have concluded that there are four things to always keep with you [whether you have entered into your dream career or you are still contemplating your next steps]:

1) love your family.

2) see as much as the world as you can.

3) do what makes you happy.
4) everything happens for a reason.

And no matter what happens I always say: #ItsAllPartOfTheAdventure