The last few days have forced me to constantly think, think… and think about what I am doing with my life. Who knew I would land in the real world with such a thud after my graduation last Thursday?

Digression…

Graduation was great. I was scared, I was nervous about how I would act, whether I would be able to walk up in the ceremony in front of everyone, whether I would be able to socialise and be in the spotlight. Well, it turns out I was so worried about the actual ceremony part that I forgot to be nervous about all the rest. And, as it turns out, the ceremony was fine. As people kept telling me, there wasn’t much to be nervous about: all you have to do is walk up to the podium, put your hands inside the chancellor’s, walk to the end and collect your certificate. Oh yeah, and you will be filmed in bright spotlights at the same time. Well, I was shaking, but it went OK. I was quite proud of myself. Little things, but big achievements for me. Not least the fact that I now have my degree.

Jobs

So now I have my degree it’s time to put it to good use, right? Well, not quite. I have temporarily moved back home for a few months. In theory, this was to save up to move out properly. Unfortunately employers seem to be unwilling to take me on in my temporary circumstances. I have tried to tell them that the job would be indefinite. Maybe I’m a bad liar, though many of them seem to think that since I have a degree I wouldn’t be sticking in their jobs for long anyway. Well, I don’t know about that. A degree in philosophy and history leaves all career choices possible.

I am not looking to become a bank manager or a fashion designer; I’m looking at working a till, cleaning hotel rooms, serving customers. Apparently they don’t want me (well they haven’t shown any signs of it yet anyway), which has forced me into yet more thinking.

What do I really want to do?

I had kind of ignored this question, since all I had been thinking about was the short-term ‘I want money to move out’. But really, do I need these jobs that badly? I have a couple of months of free living at my parents’, I still have an overdraft, enough for a couple of months rent, and two parents willing to be guarantors for the rent (hopefully meaning that some landlord somewhere would want to take on a jobless graduate).

So why not use this time to find out what I want? What I really really want (to quote the Spice Girls). I know that this can often involve sitting down, looking up a few websites, getting sidetracked by some crazy video on Youtube. I know because this is what I’ve been doing for a while.

Time to take action

I know all too well that people at university do not make the most of the time they have. That’s not true of everyone, but most. When you are doing a humanities degree there are very few contact hours, and often whole days off in which to experiment with different working opportunities. I only realised this in my third year, and while I made the most of it then and gained valuable experience, I wish I had realised earlier. I also wished I had developed an ineterst in writing before the end of my university course and written for the student magazine etc., etc……..

But now, I do have time. Now is the time to take action. Like I said yesterday, I need to put my ideas to action. As a way of making it more than an idea I actually talked to my dad about it. Whilst this might not seem like much, I am actually quite private when it comes to things like this, so by telling him I am making it more real.

I have a list of article ideas, some books (and encouragement) from my dad, and some online resources I think I can submit to. I’m not expecting to make any money in the short-term, but I will use this time to practice instead of getting stuck in a job that I hate for the sake of a few more pairs of shoes.

Thanks for getting to the end of this long rant!

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NOTE: Semi-related to my taking action is the purchase of a domain for this blog. I’m pretty sure I don’t have enough readers to warrant my own domain, but I am interested with playing about with the layout and having more control over the whole thing. Not only that but the domains at domainsite.com are really cheap. If I can figure the whole thing out this blog should be seamlessly transferred to the new domain ASAP.