“How vain to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”
My friend presented this Thoreau quote to me one evening as we sat at a sparsely-populated bar waiting for a band to go on, discussing life and the inevitable question of what exactly it is that we want to do with it.
Read MoreThe first few months after moving, there were many days that I questioned why I did this to myself. Why I left all my friends and family behind and moved across the country to this giant, consuming city. Why I plunged myself into a job I knew nothing about. Why I moved in and spent all my time with a group of people I didn’t know and who didn’t know me.
Read MoreThis isn’t exactly what I expected to be dealing with during my first year after college, but it’s NBD. Or maybe it is a BD and I’m just too ignorant right now to realize that it’s a BD. But regardless of BD status, I do know that all will be well in the end. After all, it could be worse. At least I’m #blessed that modern medicine exists and #doubleblessed I can stay on my parents’ health insurance for now.
Read MoreOver the past month, I’ve found myself at a huge divide over my future. My original plan was to apply for graduate school in London and spend a year abroad earning my Masters in Public Relations. I even got my passport expedited so I could send in my applications early. I was full speed ahead and not looking back.
Read MoreAs a recent graduate, I’ve spent the past several months frantically searching for jobs, trying to kick start my career in God-knows-what and find some way to financially support myself until I figure out what I really want to do. Here is my update: the job market is hell. Apparently “entry-level” now requires two to four years experience, a personal reference from Obama and a blessing from the Pope.
Read MoreWe’ve all heard the idiom “when it rains, it pours.” When something goes wrong, it feels like everything else that could possibly go wrong, does. Maybe your storm is very literal. Maybe it’s raining as you power-walk to campus on your way to an 8 a.m. test, and just as you’re about to cross the street, a car’s wheels catch a nearby puddle and douse you. (True story, y’all.) Or maybe your storm is abstract: the stress of life hangs over you like one of those cartoon thunderstorm clouds.
Read MoreI would imagine we all have that certain year pinpointed as “the best year of our life.” 2014 was that year for me. And now, it’s over.
But as my friend reminded me on the drive home New Year’s Eve, I mustn’t tell myself that “2014 was the best year of my life” as if all upcoming years will continually pale in comparison. Sure, 2014 was the best year of my life, but only so far.
Read MorePost-Graduation Expectations: Traveling to new and exciting places you have never gone before.
Post-Graduation Reality: Traveling to new and exciting places you have never gone before.
That’s right! I did it! And this trip left an impression on me and changed my outlook on what my life should be like one month after graduating college.
So where did I go?
Read MoreI don’t think there’s really a way to prepare for the dynamic change that happens between graduation and life beyond college, but some part of me thinks that a Construction Science class or two might have helped me get started on rebuilding the foundation of my life post-grad. I had grown accustomed to waking up early, going to school, doing homework and going to sleep. I was used to the college perks of having friends just 10 feet or a 10-minute drive away. If I stayed up too late, I didn’t really have to go to my 8 a.m. (sorry, Mom), and if I didn’t want to study, Netflix enabled me to waste afternoons wondering when Ted was finally going to catch a break.
Read MoreI personally moved back in with my parents about a month ago. I started a full-time job in Corporate America but chose to move back home to save money over the next year. My parents went through this process in the summer of 2011 when my oldest sister came home after earning a college degree and finding very little in the job market, like so many millennials today.
In the few years she lived at home, our family learned the “best practices” by trial and error, so I’ve devised 5 rules if you’re heading back home.
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