When you first get out of college it can be a whirlwind of emotions. "First you're sweet then you're sour," as the sour patch kids would say. The gratitude you experience is unreal, but your life's path isn't always as detail oriented as you'd expect.
A new grad is so grateful that they've made it to the finish line. Through all the academic and personal life changes. The award is amazing, not all hardships were in vain. The struggles we go through in life are the trial and error moments. It's always good to come just a few moments away.
I have to constantly remind myself of that. "The good moments are just a few moments away." I recently graduated University and I feel lost. Not sure what direction I should take. Should I pursue what's going to give me money (what my parents said) and leverage the money to pursue my passions. Do I pursue my passions and exercise the muscle of tenacity? Either way I'll have to exercise the muscle of "patience." Good things come with time.
New Grads often have to worry about whether they have enough experience. How are we supposed to get a job if the position is asking for 5+ years of skillset? We weren't given a skill set in college: we were given general courses. If college focused more on skills than general courses. The debt that we've accumulated over the years wouldn't linger so heavily in our self consciousness. There's a whole lot of "what ifs and maybes," after you graduate college. Neither the world or my parents said that these emotions and questions I'm having were part of the plan.
It would be amazing to turn those "what ifs," into "I've done." The world makes career and sustainability seem so easy. The map and logistics they've had planned out for us are obtainable, but it's the small details that really matter. What are you going to do to get what you want? Refer back to your morals and values: that'll help you make the decision between "what my parents said," or "what my heart is telling me to do."
So I did it; I’m finally thirty. And this morning I woke up and took a picture of my face without anything on it except some chapstick (which doesn’t count as makeup because I don’t like having chapped lips). In the middle is some cake. And the bottom picture is me in a brand new dress, holding someone else who shares my birthday—the TARDIS! Goodbye to “feeling twentyfine” and hello to “asian and nerdy” (because it rhymes with “thirty” and I like Weird Al Yankovic).