Part One

DISCLAIMER: A lot of this is rambling about myself and my life, but maybe you are in the same boat as me and can relate. If so, enjoy.

So here I am. 22 years old and a college graduate. All of my life plans have always revolved around this stage in my life. It was all figured out. After high school, I'd go to college, and after college I'd start my marketing career; and eventually, one day, I'd start my own agency. I only wish life was as simple as I planned. Post grad life lesson #1: Things in life rarely go the way you have planned. Most of the time, you just have to stop worrying about how you think things will turn out and leave it up to God.

Ok, I'll get off my soap-box. Back to post grad life. You know on the first day of classes, when the professors would make you say some things about yourself to get acquainted with the class? Ok, well maybe only Meredith girls could understand that - I’m sure for those of you in classes of 300+ students, the situation was quite different. But anyways, I was always the one who told the class that my dream job was to start my own marketing agency one day. And the start to that would to be working my way up to the top in a local agency. Seems simple enough, right?

Well I guess it's harder than one would think, because now I'm not at all working in the field I went to school for. I work at a law firm. And I'm not going to be specific about it because I'm pretty sure that's against our "blogging policy." (Side note, funny how times have changed. I'm pretty sure my parent's generation would never have a blogging policy at their jobs or even know what blogging is until our generation came along. I guess this is truly "the digital era.") My official title is “word processor” which basically means I type, edit, and format legal documents all day. I guess you could say that all the editing I do at the law firm is preparing me for my other future dream job of copywriting for an agency, but that's about all the relevance my job has to do with my field. Note: I'm not saying I'm not appreciative of my job at all. I am so fortunate to even have a full-time job in this economy. Even in the 3 months I've been working, I've learned a lot about life and the professional world and working a "big girl" job in general. I'm simply saying that I would love to have a job in my field because I'm passionate about it.

So here's the issue. And I have a feeling I'm not the only one who struggled with this. EVERYBODY WANTS EXPERIENCE! The only jobs in your field that are willing to give you experience are either unpaid or sometimes paid, but not enough to even financially support yourself with. And now that I'm working full time I had to give up my internship at an agency which I loved because a girl's got to make a living. And we all know we can't live off our parents forever and we also know we can't live off minimum wage thanks to Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed." Which can I say was an amazing and eye opening book and I'm so glad Dr. Grant made me read it in Research Methods even though I vividly remember bitching about having to read it and saying something along the lines of "he thinks his class is the only class I'm taking this semester." Post Grad life lesson #2: A lot of things in life you don't want to do, but you must do them because a few years down the road you'll understand that it helped you in some way. Ok, back on track again. To sum up this paragraph, I just think it would seriously be a miracle to find someone who will hire me for a decent paying job in my field who considers my 4 years of college and 2 internships (and many other life experiences not to be discussed here because they would make this post way too lengthy) are experience enough to give me a chance.

So semi change of subject, but still on the post grad topic, I met a friend out for lunch the other day and afterwards I got in my car and started fighting traffic to get back to the office. (Side note: I feel very old talking about fighting traffic trying to get to or from work. Next thing you know, I'll be listening to NPR and worried about my daily fiber intake. Lovely.) So anyways, I'm driving back to work and I'm sweating cause the A/C in my car doesn't work very well and I'm too poor/stupid about cars to fix it. And speaking of poor, that's one of the "joys" of post-grad life - everybody thinks that once you graduate, you will magically have a great career and all this money. News flash - it takes time to have money….for most people anyways, unless you win the lottery or have a trust fund or have mafia connections.

Ok, so I'm stopped at a red light and I just happen to glance at myself in the rear view mirror. It wasn't some out of the ordinary glance in the mirror, just a normal work day - but the thought just hit me like a book bag full of bricks (phrase stolen from my high school Spanish teacher). How did I become this person? It’s like that poster where the little kitten looks in the mirror and sees the lion, but instead I see the little kitten when I look in the mirror but really I’m the lion. Don’t know if that made any sense to you, so I’ll try to explain better. I’m wearing "dress slacks" (a term only my parents and grandparents used to use, but somehow now I’m saying stuff like “dang, I need to go shopping for some new dress slacks”), heels, a blouse - not a shirt, but a blouse - pearls, and my hair bobby pinned back so my bangs don't get in the way when I'm getting intense at work. I think I had some kind of outer body experience. I suddenly sunk into the feeling of me as a little girl when my mom started making me do chores or when she would make me call to order the pizza because it would help me learn how to do "grown up" things. I felt like the devil on my shoulder wanted me to have a tantrum and scream, "I don't wanna grow up!!" and never return back to the office but instead get on I-40E as quickly as possible and feed my hedonism by sitting on the beach for the rest of my days. But then the angel on my other shoulder kicked in and said "Stop it, you are so blessed to have a job and an education and family and boyfriend and friends who love you." And for that day at least, I went with the angel.

But, let's get back to the whole post-grad money situation. I think, at least in my case anyways, that people are actually worse post-grad (financially at least) because your parents stop paying for all your crap and it's all your responsibility now. No more weekend shopping trips for a cute new outfit with Mom and her credit card. Now its weekend shopping trips to Home Goods cause you're looking for things you wouldn't even think you would need to buy at 22 years old, like curtains and vases and decorative benches. Suddenly, you'd rather spend money on patio furniture than a hot clubbing dress.

And then there's the issue of staying in shape. Somebody please tell me how I ate whatever I wanted in college and worked out occasionally and stayed the same size? Now, I feel like Jello. That’s right, a blob of Jello. I guess that's what sitting at a desk all day will do. I've considered being one of those nerds who sits on an exercise ball instead of a chair at my desk. I've also considered bringing free weights and doing bicep curls when my workload is minimal. But for some reason, I don't think the attorneys would like it if I broke out in sit-ups or jumping jacks in my cubicle after lunch. So I've resorted to waking up at 6:30 a.m. and going to the gym at my apartment complex before work. At least my roommate has agreed to come with so it's not as terrible. Never in my most imaginative dreams did I foresee myself waking up at 6:30 a.m. to exercise. But my only other option is to work out half asleep after work when my puppy needs my attention since she's been in her crate all day. So 6:30 a.m. it is. But hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do - no more Jello please.

And lastly, there's the issue of grocery shopping. You can't just buy the normal processed foods you were used to eating in college. There's all this pressure to come home from work when you're exhausted and all you want to do is sit your ass on the couch and veg out all night. Sometimes I just want to eat hamburger helper - not the kind that you buy the meat separately for, but the kind that comes in a little bowl already made and all you have to do is microwave it. But sigh, I'm a young professional, I have to make something healthy and learn how to cook so I can be a good wife one day. And all I keep thinking is - "what the hell would I do if I had kids thrown into this equation?" I've learned to really admire my parents for working full-time and being full-time taxi drivers for me and my brothers and for keeping their marriage strong and for doing everything they did that now I'm about to have to do in a few years and I have no idea how I'll be able to do it.

For today, I will be cheesy and leave you with this quote until my next posting of post-grad exciting/non-exciting events:

“So often we try to alter circumstances to suit ourselves, instead of letting them alter us, which is what they are meant to do.” -Stolen from one of my Facebook friend’s about me section.