Don’t blow it

I did it. That post graduation train is finally in motion, so world, get ready.  This internship is nothing spectacular, but experiencing the marketing world with one of the most important companies in general aviation today must have some benefits, the best being that I can experience something new without having to jump into the career world with no concrete ideas about what I want.  So far, I have turned down interviews with or been rejected by, Abercrombie and Fitch Manager in Training program, Target Executive in Training program, Chicago Office Technology Group, Edward Jones, Eli Lilly and Co., Stryker Instruments, and Aflac, not to mention the multitude of companies that simply never called.  What I saw in those companies escapes me; it must have been the idea of actually having some money for once in my life.  Now that the post graduation wave has passed and the waters are calm, I’m astonished at some of the jobs my friends have gone into.  Maybe I’m just picky, but a job is not a job, one must have standards.

 

My advice to anyone graduating from college that is still unsure of the direction in which they wish to take their lives is to take some time and think about it.  What’s the rush anyway?  Get some goals, find out what you like, experience something.  Your life has been encompassed in a 4 square mile world for the past four years that is absolutely nothing like the real world.  Sure, there are plenty of ideas and lofty plans floating around college campuses, and even some real people giving speeches about what the real world is like, but it’s not real.  College life is soooooooo far from the real world that plenty of grads have a hard time adjusting to work life.  When you’re young, be young, go somewhere, do something, save some money and go do anything you want to do while you still can.  You’ll probably find some things out about yourself in the process that could change everything.  What if there is something out there that completely trumps everything you want for yourself at this moment?  Imagine looking back on your life as it is today after knowing that new and amazing thing you have not yet discovered about yourself and thinking, “Wow, I can’t believe I was about to do that with my life!”.  It has happened to me, and I’ve barely left town.