What happens to life after college? For so many of us it’s a time where we don’t know exactly where we are going or heading. Friends get engaged, married, and pregnant while we wonder if life is passing us by faster than we thought. We worry about finding jobs and wonder where to go in our careers once we do find that first gig. In short, the Quarterlife crisis is where we stop being kids and start being grown up.
For the next few days I’ll be hosting different perspectives on our post-college lives because even though we maybe going through times of personal growth and exploration- we aren’t doing it alone.
Today’s post is from a blogger I’ve admired for sometime, Jenn Bollenbacher from You’ll Grow To Love Me. She recently just graduated from Tufts and has this to say from the college grad point of view.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Dan Bruno
So I keep reading about the Quarter Life Crisis and everything that I have to look forward to, and let me just say that it’s a little bit intimidating.
After four years, I finally graduated college last Sunday. As in 6 days ago. So you can imagine that I’m riding pretty high and feeling awesome at this point. I currently have zero responsibilities or obligations, other than to have a great Memorial Day barbecue with friends.
But then I remember that I don’t have a job, my life is limbo, half of my stuff is en route to my parents’ house in Chicago and the other half I left behind in Boston in the form of Goodwill donations. So how did I get here and where do I go now?
First of all, WHERE AM I? Geographically speaking, I’m in Atlanta, Georgia at the moment. Two days ago I was in Boston, Massachusetts and next Tuesday I will be back in Chicago. And that’s about as planned as my life is right now. Applying for jobs is a challenge when you’re going from place to place, and interviewing for jobs is even more difficult when you don’t live there.
It’s funny, though. The day before I left Boston for good, I received two significant job leads there. Is that karma or irony or bad timing? I don’t know, but it’s frustrating.
I take a self-inventory and reflect at everything I’ve achieved in the last four years, and wonder where I’ll be in another four years from now. Will I have a husband? Kids? Will I be a traveling nomad or a corporate executive? Will I risk it all for the entrepreneurial lifestyle? I don’t know.
I see friends of mine who are off to the Ukraine on Fulbright scholarships, and others who are celebrating their 3 year wedding anniversary and have a mortgage and two kids. Which direction am I heading?
I left college behind with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and an impending sense of uncertainty. I don’t have set plans yet, and waiting around to hear back about jobs and interviews is an endlessly tiring process. Without plans, there’s not much I can do to plan, you know? And as a planner, that’s for me to adjust to.
I think the biggest theme of my life right now is I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow or what I’m going to be doing in 6 months or 6 years. My Quarter Life Crisis hasn’t even hit me yet, or maybe it has. I don’t even know that!
I DO know that whatever direction my life goes, it will be filled with choices and laughter and friendships and love and obstacles and accomplishments. It will be fulfilling and rewarding and stressful and joyous. So even if I don’t know what’s around the bend, I say BRING IT ON.
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