the reality of life after graduation.

So, you made it. It feels like just a moment ago, you were a child without a care in the world. And now you're here. You're a big kid now. You're gonna walk across that stage and out into adulthood. The world is your oyster. And the only question left to answer is... What the hell do you do now? The way I see it, it feels like there are three options of things you do after you graduate. One, get a job. Two, go back to school. Three, figure out what the hell you want to do for the rest of your life. And there are pros and cons to all of them. Getting a job, you get money, you start your career, and your lifestyle is generally infinitely more stable than how it was in undergrad. Seriously, the people I know who took this route just have a sort of light in their eyes that comes with a life free of homework and exam nightmares. Continuing more school, you get to delay all the scary parts of adulthood for a little bit longer and cling on to whatever security you fabricated in the student lifestyle. That, and hopefully focusing on learning something that you're really interested in. Still broke? Still don't really know what you want to do next? Doesn't matter. You're still a student, so everything's okay. Everything's fine. Everything is totally fine. Figuring out what you want to do for the rest of your life? Okay, this one does sound daunting, not gonna lie. But it's also the perfect reason to travel, get out in the world, try new things, and experience life like you never had before. When's your next chance to have all this time, energy, and freedom just for you? Isn't the world your oyster? Well, like I said, there's pros, and there's cons. I finished my undergrad last spring, which means it's pretty much been a year for me out here. And let me tell you. How you feeling? Gotta be honest with you, pal. I've been bad. Now, I chose door number two to go back to school, which is honestly one of the safest options, right? Why deal with the problem now if you can just delay it for a couple more years? Plus, going out in the job market in this economy? No thanks. I'll sink thousands and thousands more dollars into another degree that will make me marginally more employable in a future world where, at this rate, we'll be in an exponentially worse state of climate crisis and wealth inequality. Was that too dark? Sorry. Listen, I know how much this absolutely reeks of privilege. Oh, boo-hoo, I had the time, money, and resources to get a world-class education at an institution that my ancestors might not have even thought was possible for me. And now my widow-baby brain is too scared to do anything besides standardized tests and assignments, even though I complained about them the entire time I was doing them. Okay, I had a privileged life, and I got lucky, and I'm unhappy. But as whiny as this sounds, I really don't think I'm alone on this. I think the post-grad depression is real for a lot of people, and I find that so crazy. Like, we paid thousands and thousands of dollars to be depressed? I could have done that for free. And I know it's not just me. For those courageous ones that jump straight into the workforce, most of the time, they're not just landing a nice, cushy job on the first go. Either they're in the bottomless pit of sending out job applications with no responses, sinking deeper and deeper into their unemployed despair, or they land an entry-level position of grunt work and submission, spending years to get to where they actually want to be. Even if they do get a decent job, which obviously some do, unless they decide to go back to school sometime in the future, they're essentially now staring down a 40-50 year long barrel of the industry that they're locked into for the rest of their working life. An industry that, mind you, they likely chose at the ripe age of 17 years old, at the pinnacle of hormones and emotional fluctuations. Let's hope that kid made a good choice, right? Figuring out what you want to do then doesn't sound half bad. Just re-evaluating before you spend some of your healthiest, responsibility-free years working towards something that you don't even like, you know? But it's not hard to see the existential dread that comes with this path either. No money, no career, just vibes. It's a summer break that never ends, not even when you want it to, and the only person that can really pull you out of it is yourself. It's one of the most delayed forms of gratification because you have no idea when, or if, the reward will ever come. That gap year turns to gap years, and it feels like the world is an ever running escalator and you are facing the wrong way, always walking but finding yourself in the same spot. Well then, school's always nice, right? I mean, all you have to do is put in the same, if not more, effort as if you had a job, except you don't get paid. They actually take your money, on top of the regular living expenses you spend just to stay alive. Unless you're one of the angels that can be carried through purely on the spirit of learning. You already went to classes and did homework and tests and group projects with people you neither knew nor liked for nearly 20 years just to do it again? What kind of sick, masochistic, myth Sisyphus lifestyle is this? And it's not just continuing the same schooling you've done before. I don't know about other grad programs, but as someone in a professional degree studying something different from my undergrad in a totally different academic environment, it's literally like starting all over again. To go through the same feelings you already went through as a freshman twice before, trying to adapt to a new crowd, being totally lost and consistently getting things wrong, wondering if you're even cut out for what you signed up for, it's demoralizing and never ending. You're small and stupid and make very little money, and it seems like everyone else is having a better time than you are. I think that's a big issue with the three options you have after graduation. No matter which one you pick, it always seems like there's something better you could be doing. And even if you ultimately stand by the choice that you made, as I do, even though sometimes it seems like I hate it, there's always enough concern to at least question whether what you're doing is really the right thing for you. We're fed all of these messages, that life is short, that our 20s are supposed to be the best decade of our lives, that we're young and in our prime, that we'll wish to go back to this time when we're older. All of this pressure makes it impossible not to question if we're making a mistake, if we're going down the wrong path, if we're not setting up our future as we should. Am I doing this wrong? Is this how things are supposed to be? Something I've slowly been coming to terms with over the last year is that I don't really think there is a way things are supposed to be. Now, hear me out. Obviously, we want things to be happy and fulfilling and meaningful, and I'm not saying that we shouldn't want that. But I think we should worry a bit less about doing the wrong thing because I don't think there is any right answer to what we should be doing. There's no objective path that will lead you to the happy life that you want. So trying things out and messing things up now, at a stage where you have lots of time to grow and change, and you likely don't have as many people depending on you like you would if you had a kid, a mortgage, etc. Messing up now is okay. There are obviously some things you might find that are objectively wrong for you, and it's good to figure those things out too. But I think we, or at least I, should worry less about being on the right path because the right path doesn't exist. Or rather, there are so many different paths to get to where I want to go. It's better not to think of them as right and wrong paths, but just paths. If I take a break and sit on a bench to rest for a bit, that's okay. That's all part of being on the path. Just being on the path is enough. Now, did I essentially just say life's about the journey, not the destination? Did you watch this long just to hear something you could have found screen printed on a Walmart show pillow? And even if that saying were true, albeit cliche, how is that at all comforting? There's no right answer. We're all just doomed to perpetual dissatisfaction no matter what we choose. What's the point of doing any of this at all then? Welcome back to post-grad depression. I hope you've made yourself comfortable by now. Listen, I don't have all the answers. Like I told you, I only graduated a year ago, so I'm still relatively in the thick of it. Maybe in a couple years I'll have more insight, but I can only reflect on so much. What keeps me going anyways? I don't know. Some parts are nice. Like nice walks. Hanging out with friends. New adventures. New accomplishments. There are times when the benefits of my decisions come out, and other times when the disadvantages come to bite me in the ass. But it does feel better than before because these are my decisions now. I know not everyone goes to university or college, and that is a decision in itself. But we all know that more and more people are seeking higher education as a baseline to even enter the workforce these days, so it's not a totally free decision. The thing about life after graduation is that you don't really have to do anything anymore. What I mean is that you'll know people with big boy and big girl jobs, people who go back to school, people who are just trying to figure it all out, and people who are a combination of two or even all three of these paths. Everyone's doing their own thing for once, and that can be scary. The only thing that you're all doing is being scared together. And if you're really looking for something that you're supposed to be doing, something to cling on to in this tumultuous phase of life, maybe it can be that we're all scared, but we're all scared together. If that's what you're feeling, know that that's normal and that's okay. And if that's not what you're feeling, I'm calling CAP. Look me in the eyes or comment section and tell me that all of these endings and beginnings, all the interviews and rejections, all the moving and weddings and babies and things suddenly being different from out of nowhere, tell me that you're totally at ease with all of these big life changes. Is this how other new grads feel? Is this just something I need to bring up to my therapist at our next session? Have you already cracked the code and have wisdom to share? Please let me know in the comments down below, and as always, thank you for watching and joining me on this episode.