This one is for all of my post grad girlies. Have you found yourself thinking what on earth do I do now? Well, same. Hopefully this post is relatable to you, and helps you feel less alone in this overwhelming and confusing feeling!
It’s September…
Since we were 3, September always feels like back to school.
Summer is over, and we need to get working again.
But, for all of us post grad girlies who haven’t jumped straight into work, this is a very confusing time and feeling of dread for the new school year, but then the humbling realisation that you are still in the same boat as you were since graduating.
When you graduate, September feels ages away. It feels like after the summer, you will have your life figured out by September.
But that is not the case for a lot of us…
Will this stop me from buying new notebooks for the new school year? No. But that is something I’ll not go into right now lol.
We need to get rid of this feeling that we need to have everything planned by September.
We aren’t in school anymore. The year doesn’t start in September (I know a lot of financial years start in September but that’s a different story).
However, this doesn’t mean that you need to have everything figured out by January either… let’s just get this idea of having a deadline to figure everything out, out of our head.
Let’s use this ‘time off’ wisely
I use the term ‘time off’ loosely, because I know a lot of us will have part time jobs and commitments.
But, we may have more free time than before… so, what should we do with it?
These are the years of exploring everything about ourselves.
What do we like doing? Where do we like going? Who do we like seeing?
There’s all of these questions that we can explore, which is so fun and exciting.
There is a stigma around being young in your 20s, and feeling like you need to go out and party all the time.
Look…
If you like doing that, great! If you don’t like doing that, you don’t have to do it!
The key to enjoying your life to the fullest, is doing what you enjoy. Forcing yourself to go out clubbing when you don’t actually enjoy it, is just a waste of your time.
So fill your time with things that you enjoy. Maybe a lot of your time will be filled with experimenting and trying new things, to see if you enjoy them.
Try and find your passion now!
Travelling…
There is definitely an overwhelming feeling of once your a post grad, you need to go backpacking and travel the world.
Whilst I do think now is such a good time to go travelling and experience everything, that may be too far out of some peoples comfort zone.
Maybe backpacking isn’t for everyone, maybe some of us like fancy hotels etc.
But, for those who wouldn’t mind backpacking, I would encourage you to go for it!!
And to the post grad girlies who don’t like backpacking, that still doesn’t mean you can’t travel.
You can go to holiday destinations for a few days or a week, staying in hotels and exploring on your own time! It may cost more, but travelling doesn’t always have to be backpacking and camping.
Especially if you live at home, if you want to travel, the main thing you can save for and spend your money on, could be travelling.
You could travel around your country
Experiencing different cultures and making new experiences, doesn’t always have to be from other countries.
If you drive, you can travel that way, and save as much money as possible travelling there!
I think the key to travelling is making experiences, and you can do that anywhere. So whether you choose to backpack for 3 months out of the year, explore different countries for a week multiples times in the year, or explore different cities in your own country… you are still going to make amazing experiences.
Thinking about a career
When I get asked what career I want to do, I internally freak out.
My career path has always changed, I have never been set on one thing, and I have always been quite unsure.
That makes jumping into things quite hard, because I don’t want to feel passionate about something, and then for 1 year later to hate it and think what have I done.
The most comforting thing I have heard, is that the average person in their 20s goes through a minimum of 7 jobs. So that’s not even counting your 30s.
This is so comforting to hear because when you graduate from uni, you think that the first job you get is going to be your job for the rest of your life, and that is simply, based on statistics, not the case.
So jumping into something may be the best option, because it might make you realise, actually, I hate this and want to do something else. And then you can jump into something else.
I have always envied the people who have known what career path they wanted to go down, have gone to uni for it, and just have a guaranteed job post grad. And if that’s you, that’s absolutely great. But maybe there is something fun and exciting with not knowing what you want to do.
You have endless possibilities in front of you to choose from, and what’s stopping you from exploring them all?
With not having a set career path after uni, means that you are not tied down to anything right now. You really have free reign to do whatever you want in this moment, so use that to your advantage.
What am I currently doing?
Of course you can skip over this part if it’s not beneficial to you, but I am so nosy, and love to know what other people are doing.
I have a part time job, which I have had for just over 4 years now. So I have had a part time job all throughout sixth form (college) as well as uni, to save money and just be able to buy experiences, clothes, driving lessons, etc.
I started this blog towards the end of my last year of uni. I built this website using a template and planned everything out (this took me the whole month of February lol).
At the end of February / start of March, I launched this blog (wow those 7 months have gone fast). My aim being to help other people in the same boat as me, talk about everything I’m interested in, hoping to reach my target audience who find it interesting too, and just to have something I’m proud of that could one day turn into a career / side hustle.
I have been struggling recently. Working so hard on my blog every single day since the end of uni, I am only just figuring out how to balance working on my blog, and my part time job, with allowing myself time off and not feeling guilty about it.
As of now post grad, I’m not sure what will come of this blog, I’m not sure what next week will look like, never mind next year, but I am just trying to enjoy every day, not putting too much pressure on myself.
I realise that I am 21, and will never be as young as I am now (or have as little responsibility), so I am just trying to live in the moment!
I also have another validating post about feeling lost in your 20s! (http://bigsisterera.com/feeling-lost-in-your-20s/)
Thank you for reading <3
I hope this post helped you, if you are a post grad girlie, wondering what on earth to do next, me too. I hope this made you feel less alone, validated your feelings, and gave you some hope for the unknown future.
If anyone wants to talk about this, my socials are on this page, and my email is in my contact page!
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