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Why it's okay to be a mess after uni
Other | Wednesday 9th March 2016 | Sabrin
Step back for a moment. Would you call your career a solid one? Is it promising, progressive and rewarding? Does it make you feel fuzzy with purpose on your way to work and accomplishment on your way home? Do you think about your work when you’re not there? Are you happy?
Either way, nobody gives a shit. The ugly truth is that most of us don’t get the chance to pursue a career or job that makes us feel any of those ways. We don’t get the chance because at the ripe age of sixteen, we were made to decide what we wanted to study in college; a decision so seemingly brazen and impulsive but carrying so much weight as to the course that the next few years would take.
We chose our A Levels in a star-eyed hurry to leave secondary school and to become an ‘almost adult’ and before we really got settled in, we had UCAS applications thrown at us and we then had a degree to decide upon; a degree which, in most cases, would determine the next few years after that.
And so after our three-year booze cruise they liked to call university, most of us got shit jobs in dead end offices, retail stores or call-centres. Some of us did nothing and moved back in with our parents whilst adopting the ‘adult-child’ persona that served to prolong our reckless student years.
A small per cent of us landed the dream job and seemed to do life very properly. Lucky them. The rest of us worked here and there, landing gigs wherever we could and we dabbled in all sorts of inconsistent jobs. We just didn’t know what we wanted, and we sure as hell weren’t willing to get ourselves stuck in a job we didn’t love or at least like and we were the types that would get stuck, too.
We struggled for a while and some of us have broken down once or twice. We changed our minds about career choices and our morale would fall often. We questioned if we were good at anything at all or if we would ever be happy.
We also watched others complain about their jobs day in and day out, and in some way, we knew that we were right for waiting. We knew that we would rather wait and figure out what the hell it is that we wanted to do with ourselves.
We'd rather be broke as hell for a while, depressed and bored whilst figuring out who we were and what we want to do. We would rather do that than take the first "normal" job that came our way just because we needed to fit in with the status quo. And with that in mind, this is exactly why it's okay to be a hot mess after you finally finish uni:
- Most of us chose our degrees blindly before we had any idea of what we wanted from life - we shouldn't be expected to have it all figured out just because we've graduated!
- One word: DISSERTATION. We are stressed and we are tired.
- Everyone knows the struggle of job hunting after uni finishes. Where are all the jobs?!
- We've been living like wild animals for three years - this is our transition into adulthood and we will take our time.
- Getting a full time job means repaying your student loans and we're just not ready to accept that it's all over*
We don’t need to have it all figured out and we definitely don’t need to pursue careers we have no interest in. Whilst we have bills to pay and mouths to feed, we should be supporting each other to pursue the things that we do love. We should be pushing each other to take the risks and to make the leaps of faiths. No matter what, we should never live to work and never succumb to mediocrity. We are the ones who will find stability in chaos.
*pay your damn debts
