Graduation

Aaah I see...

Aimee, I think you should just enjoy yourself until september. Have some fun!!! Don't get a job until you absolutely have to!!! If I could go back in time, I'd just be a lifetime student.

need to pay off that 20 thousand dollars in loans I have though, so I need a job.

I still don't know what I want to do.

I don't want to work at the mall all of my life I know that much.

Loan repayment is deferred for a while, though, right? A year or something after graduation?

It sounds like you want to do some really important, necessary things, and have a plan in place for how to do it. That's great!!

One thing is that the kind of job you're talking about is an emotional roller coaster -- extremely rewarding, extremely depressing. (I had a similar job, or at least a job where I did something similar among many many other responsibilities.) On the one hand, it was satisfying for me to be so patently DOING something, accomplishing something, making the world a better place... but it also took a whole lot out of me, and I don't think I could've done it for too much longer than I did (3 years.) A lot of people in that field get burnt out.

Just FYI. I do think it's a very worthy thing. I think another A2K member, Brooke, does something similar, perhaps you can talk to her.

I talked to the woman at the agency who does it and she says that this job is easier, you don't get the emotional, thing you are there for just one part of the process, the restraining order, the hearing. you don't have to put your self out there as their emotional punching bag... she says that this job is easier than counseling.

I get 6 months before I ahve to pay...

So that takes you through September anyway.

That does sound like a good job, then. (Yes, the counselling is especially exhausting.) The hearing will be plenty emotional, though, even if you're not the punnching bag. Just being a witness.

What's your hesitation? (This thread wasn't called "I'm going to be starting a great new career in September!")

everyone keeps badgering me about "Waht are you going to do when you graduate, what are your plans."

I just wanted to know if I was the only one who didn't know.

I knew exactly what I wanted to be doing after graduation.
I was soooo sure.
Did I do it? Sort of. Not exactly.

And I'm still meandering along. The key to all of my employment meanderings has been the research skills I developed in university.

I think it's normal to not know. Heck, I get kind of nervous about people who do know. I mean, how can you be sure of what will make you happy in 20 years? And, technology is constantly changing, so new jobs opened up that didn't exist before, and older ones go away. When I was in college, working with computers meant feeding punch cards or green and white paper in a machine the size of a full bathroom. It involved complex programming and odd results.

Things are a lil different now. :-D

yeah I guess you are right, but when I tell people I don't know the ylook at me like I have lepracy and run screaming in the other direction.

Really? I think most people don't know what they're going to do when they graduate (or if they think they do, like I did - they don't have a clue, like I didn't).

I don't know why... I guess I will fiddle around for a while and then go to grad school for something.

I'd guess that 95% of college graduates hope to work "in their major" and at least 75% of those settle for what's available. (Another 15% go to graduate school).

You don't know what your plans are for the rest of your life because you just graduated from an academic world with clear requirements and goals and you've plummeted into the diversity of reality.

You haven't flunked Reality 101--the course requirements involve exploring the world to determine your place in the world.

Hold your dominion--and enjoy the journey.

that is beautiful... at least you understand me.

I thought I knew. I was a bacteriology major in college, did a laboratory internship after graduation, and followed up by working in research and clinical labs for fifteen years, liking the work for much of the time. I started taking drawing classes at night when I was working in a lab I hated, and found that I loved drawing and painting... and switched careers. Doing that involved a lot more schooling.

I like having had two (and sort of a third) careers, feel enriched by that. The trouble is, I can think of a few more I'd like to try. Life isn't long enough for all the interesting work I'd like to do.

On people looing at you funny for not knowing - don't worry about that at all.

aimee--

I'm collecting Social Security and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up--but I'm having a lot of fun growing up.

If I'm not finished with my creaky joints and gray hair, why should you expect to be?

Explore! Enjoy!

atleast nddy understands me...

aimeemarie--

On her deathbed (at the age of 85) my mother was musing, "Suppose I'd majored in horticulture instead of Greek and Latin...."

According to the carbon cycle, you either grow or decay. Enjoy growing.

Hold your dominion.