After being out of school and in the “real world” for a little over two months now I have had to make a lot of adjustments and deal with things that I didn’t have to while in school. None of this has been easy and a lot of it was not expected. Outside of how to apply for jobs, write cover letters and how to properly interview; nobody talks about having to deal with other real world things. I’m not talking about bills and paying rent either.
Life after college, what is that like? I was lucky enough to get a full time salaried position with benefits before I even graduated while most of the people I know are struggling to find any job, internship or are really weighing the cost benefits of getting another degree. I have been struggling with adjusting to a new schedule and a completely different lifestyle.
I enjoy my job and the people here but it has been a struggle for me. My class schedule in school was always great, on most days my classes began at 8am and would end just before or after lunch and so I had an incredible amount of time and freedom. I spent a lot of time with people I cared for, I wandered more than maybe I should have, did a lot of work for the causes and clubs I cared about and sometimes studied. Now it’s difficult for me to sit at a desk all day long nine to five with no windows for sunlight and not really having a reason to leave my desk. I’m wandering the office any chance I get and I’m sure my coworkers wonder why I’m such a nut. Adjusting to a schedule like this is difficult, honestly I would rather come in a whole hour earlier if that meant I could leave at 4 pm.
Also sitting at a desk all day doesn’t help you expend energy. I feel restless all day like I want to get up and run around. It’s to the point that even though I’m tired at night and I feel the need to sleep, my body- my muscles still want to move and just go. It’s been 2 months and I’m still not physically adjusted to this lifestyle. I don’t know if I ever will be. I would always sit for awhile to do papers and school work but I wasn’t confined to my desk. I would go to Starbucks or the library, sit on the lawn or roll around on my living room floor, anywhere I wanted I did work. Now I’m confined to my desk (which is an upgrade to my previous desks), chair and computer. I’ve put a lot of thought into purchasing one of those exercise yoga balls to bounce on while I work however I don’t know if that’s considered professional and so I’ve been told, we can’t have them here in the office. Especially for me since my position doubles as the lobby receptionist, which I just think happened due to desk availability and an easy thing to add onto my position. I’m in the process of looking for a new gym with a swimming pool hopefully, if I find one I’ll be the happiest camper ever.
Since school has ended I’ve been increasingly bored, I have this whole city but I feel like I have no time to explore it. I wake up, commute to work, spend all day at work, commute home and eat dinner. By the time I’m done making dinner I’m really not in the mood to leave the apartment and explore especially after I had just been in the city. My fiance has been working really hard to study for the MCAT so I’m less inclined to go out and do things without him. It’s not that I won’t, I just don’t really want to explore by myself. I want to share the experience with him. I don’t want to say that I’m not satisfied with my life right now but I just wish I had more time to do the things I really enjoy. Maybe I just need a little break from work since I didn’t get to have a break during senior week or at all this summer. I need to make more of a commitment to heading out and exploring more, plain and simple. We’ve done a little bit of exploring but not nearly enough.
