You Are Not Alone

Let’s all take a step back down memory lane of what was our lives just a few short months ago, shall we? In college you are blessed and cursed with being constantly surrounded by friends: living with them, sharing the same classes, working with them and enjoying Friday night shenanigans together. We are just floating along on a social high and maybe even yearning for some alone time.

Fast forward to present day: My daily social interactions consist of yelling at other Dallas drivers on my hour-long commute, chatting with my co-workers in the office (S/O to the cube), hanging out with my family when I return home around 5 pm each evening, and nightly snuggles with my cat who I’m fairly certain suffers from severe attachment disorder.

I’ll be completely honest: I have been throwing quite the pity party for myself.

I moved around a lot throughout my childhood but loved it because I made friends in every city I lived in. However, I’ve come to find that making friends is a lot easier when you have school as a part of the equation. Now my biggest fear now is how on earth are you supposed to make friends outside of work in a city where you only know a handful of people? As an introverted extrovert, this is not the easiest thing in the world.

This post isn’t mean to be a depressing one. Rather, this post was written in part to help me accept and embrace this current situation I find myself in but to also hopefully reach other post-grads who are experiencing the same thing as me.

Enough pity party. This is a time in our lives full of change, possibility and obstacles, a time in which we can learn a lot about ourselves. Rather than having the comfort of your friends right across the hall, it may force you to learn to lean on yourself and grow into a stronger person because of it.

Rather than focusing on the negative, let’s look at everything good we have going for us. For me personally, I have grown much closer to my family and brother in particular after moving back home. Also, I am so lucky to have my internship; I have some amazingly talented co-workers that I get to learn from on a daily basis, and I get to be surrounded by my passion of golf every single day. My friends are only a phone call away and I am by no means alone. I just graduated college, I am in good health; overall I’d say I’m pretty lucky. So no time for Debbie Downers or Negative Nancy, focus on all the good you have going in your life and everything else will slowly but surely fall into place.

Most importantly, know you are not alone.