You have comfortably drifted through the past three years in a haze of cheap jager bombs and free student cheeseburgers. When your bank account starts to gather dust you seek refuge in the fact that a loan day is on the horizon – but what happens when you reach that final horizon and peer of the edge to find the harsh reality that there are no more loan days – that treasured piece of plastic that got you your free cheeseburger is soon to be invalid and it is no longer acceptable to go to your local shop wearing a onesie.
Primary school, secondary school, college then university. The foundation of the path you have walked your entire life has been removed. You spent the majority of your life anticipating escaping the four walls of a classroom but almost as soon as you escape them you miss the security they once provided. Your sense of direction is gone as you search for the job you have been preparing yourself for your whole life.
I recently watched a film called into the wild about a kid that graduates college and sacks of the norms of the society, renaming himself Alexander Supertramp and disappearing into the depths of Alaska without a trace (where he eventually dies after eating a poisonous potato root but the point is he acted on impulse and escaped the materialistic world to find himself in the wilderness – brave fella). I feel graduating without a job lined up could lead to anyone wanting to make like Mr Supertramp.
It’s a scary time – the limbo between university and your first real job. Positive thinking is key, this is a massive cliché but it has to be said that the world really is your oyster. Take every opportunity, apply for every vacancy, start your own business, travel. Yes, you may at times find yourself snowed under with rejection emails but try to remember that rejection is nothing more than a necessary step in the pursuit of success.
You carefully peel the posters off your wall in the hope of not leaving blue tack marks and retrieving your full deposit from your landlord. The bittersweet reality that you’re leaving your final student house for the last time sinks in. You can almost hear the nostalgic soundtrack of Greendays ‘time of your life’ as you flick through photos of the many sleepless nights you spent drinking Sainsburys value wine.
As Malcolm X once said “education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” You’ve got the passport, it’s up to you where you go next.
