THE STAGES OF LIFE AFTER UNI

Last week I was scrolling though Facebook and a photo from my graduation popped up; it was only then that I realised it had been a year since I graduated. I cannot believe that it's been a whole year, it has flown by so quickly and it really does only seem like a few months ago that I was in university. I was one of those that was quite looking forward to finishing uni as I wasn't the biggest fan of my course and it was such hard work that I was looking forward to having spare time, without having to be doing work all of the time. I thought I would share briefly how my year has been since finishing university, with the help of some funny little things... 

The last exam/deadline

After my last exam I couldn't quite believe that I was finished and now didn't have any work to do. It was an amazing feeling and felt like a whole load of stress and worry had been lifted - well apart from waiting and agonising over the results. 

The what the hell am I supposed to do now?

When you're so used to waking up everyday and heading straight downstairs to start a long day of revision or essay writing, waking up with not much that actually needs doing is a very weird feeling. You have all this freedom that can actually seem quite daunting. Luckily I already had a job and this blog so I did at least have some purpose to my days, but I imagine for those who don't have a job it must be a very scary thought literally being dropped into the big wide world and having to decide what to do with your life now. 

The job hunt that you're either too good for or not good enough

I worked on a make up counter while at university, so I just picked up full time hours once I graduated, so I had a bit more of an income to live on. I knew this was definitely not the job I was going to stick with for any amount of time as it's just not for me; hours of just standing, doing nothing but faking smiles and answering stupid questions and pushing sales that people do not want does not appeal to me in the slightest. While I was looking for jobs I found it so hard to know what I should be looking for. On the one hand I had a law degree which would surely show I'm more than capable to do a lot of jobs but then on the other hand, I only had a lot of the same retail experience and not much else. When I decided to maybe put my law degree to use, I looked on a job site and opened up all of the jobs that were what I was looking for in new tabs. I ended up with a very good selection but then had to close them all as they all read 'experience essential.' Now, if I was being a little more daring I still could have applied but I didn't really know exactly what I wanted so I didn't. 

The relevance to your degree

In addition to the too qualified/too inexperienced job dilemma, I actually found that my degree was in a way putting off employers when I did apply for a job that was completely irrelevant to my degree, but still closer to what I wanted than the make up counter. They couldn't quite comprehend that I was applying for a job that didn't involve law, even after explaining numerous times that I didn't necessarily want a job in law and I was very aware of that when I applied. Luckily I still got the job and I now realise I should have just gone with the 'I can't afford to pursue that career.' I used to have heart to heart chats with my manager/friend that I worked on my counter with, (yes we had that much free time), about what I was going to do in life and if I suggested anything that didn't relate to law she just couldn't understand why I was considering anything else. After talking with friends and colleagues who have also recently finished uni, you realise that there are really very few people that do end up doing anything that links with their degree, especially straight out of uni so I have definitely learnt not to stress about that. 

The I want everything right now!

Speaking of which, I did go through a stage where I felt like I needed to have everything sorted right that second. As education was finished I felt like that meant my adult life had to be completely in place. I wanted to buy a house, yet go travelling, have my dream career secured and be earning very comfortably straight away. This is extremely unrealistic and not necessary, but I'm sure it's something a lot of graduates struggle with. I moved in with my boyfriend which has been lovely and I love the independence but it is expensive and does make it harder to save up for the future, but I am still glad I did and think it's nice that we are now properly building our lives and futures together. 

Where are my friends?

So, first you leave all of your school and sixth form friends but you make new ones at uni so it's not so bad and when you come home you're all still in the same place but once uni is finished everyone seems to be all over the place. I thought I had loads of friends and then realised actually, they're all over the country. My best friend moved away for uni and has since moved even further away from me - the cheek of it, does she not even care?! 

What am I going to do?

I feel like during the last year I have considered so many careers and along the way I have realised that I now definitely don't want to do some things that I thought I always did. I've learnt that it is okay to be like this and I would rather take a little longer to figure it out, rather than just jumping into something else that I don't want to do. 

I'm actually kind of enjoying not having my life fully planned out; I know roughly what I want and I definitely know what I don't want but I have no idea about any certainties so it's actually a little more exciting not knowing. A year ago I wouldn't have imaged being where I am now and although I'm not doing exactly what I think I'll be doing for the long term, I'm grateful for the experience and feel that it's a necessary step to take.