Greetings Daizies,
I have officially been a working woman for over a year now! This blog has been with me through the stages of getting into my major, through internships, applying to full-time jobs, and graduating. A lot of my life updates during college had the light at the end of the tunnel being my current life now. So what happens after you FINALLY graduate college and get a full-time job? Lots of people who have newly graduated have asked me this question and I’ve found that I do have some thoughts I’d like to share regarding the road ahead once you enter the “real-world”. I haven’t really summarized what the first year was like so here we go!
Setting New Goals
The first few weeks after starting work I had this “now what?” feeling. Finishing school and getting a degree was the ultimate accomplishment for my entire 22 years of life and now I was starting fresh with and with brand new responsibilities. The routine of accomplishing a goal within a specific time frame was how my life was mapped out. I knew that I had the goal of ‘x’ to accomplish by winter quarter, or that I wanted to maintain this GPA by spring quarter. It was constantly short term time frames but for the long term goal of starting a successful career. Once I started full-time, I felt like that set up no longer worked. I wasn’t working for a 2-month internship anymore. When I finished a workday, I would have to wake up and do the same thing over and over again.
I knew I didn’t want my whole life to be about work so I refocused on setting goals with my creative outlets. In the first couple of weeks, I got really into writing more and creating content for my IG. That’s also around the time when I started designing Curl Calendar and would spend hours each day creating it. Having a passion outside of work gave me something to feel excited about and a way to set small goals for myself that lead to something bigger.
If there’s something you’ve been interested in for a while, you suddenly will have more time to dedicate to this interest. Instead of the goal of wanting a 3.5 grade or higher in your business economics class do you want to build up your expertise in a foreign language? Read more books? Finally take acting classes? Now is a great time to explore those interests without worrying about dedicating time to study for finals. Your goal doesn’t have to be related to an activity, it can also relate to personal goals and things you want to work on within yourself.
Find a hobby
This can go hand in hand with setting new goals. But finding a hobby to do after work makes the days seem way longer in a good way. When I first started working I was so TIRED. For the first few weeks, I was exhausted from waking up early every day and working a full 8 hours. My body just wasn’t used to it. I missed having a 10:30am class with a wake up time of 9:09 am. But when I first started working I would take naps almost every day because I was that exhausted. By the time I woke up, it was dark outside and I’d have to go back to sleep and do the same thing over again. The monotony freaked me out because I was like “omg am I just going to be this tired forever? Is this really my life?” Looking back I would tell myself to relax and that it’s okay to be tired. I had this idea of my life after graduation being a super social person and going to events and happy hours after work. This did come into fruition in the future, but starting out it takes time to get into the groove of things.
Eventually, my body finally got used to being awake and utilizing my brain in a work setting for a 40-hour work-week. Instead of taking a nap, I had things to get done with Curl Calendar or spent my time filming a YouTube video. So the days felt longer after work and I had more time for myself. I do still take naps from time to time, but my body has adjusted to my work schedule now and I’m not completely falling on the floor when I get home.
What About Your Friends?
I was so excited to move and live by myself with my cat and this experience has been nothing less than fulfilling. But the feeling of starting all over and making new friends when you’re college friends have moved back home can be nerve-wracking when you’ve finally decided you actually don’t want to spend all of your time watching Living Single by yourself. I was used to seeing my friends every day as roommates or in classes whenever I wanted. Once you graduate and people move further away, it’s going to take more effort to get quality time and actually see each other. You may not be a few minutes away but there’s FaceTime, group chats, and social media to stay in touch in between meetups. I look forward to fun events on the weekends and time to just enjoy myself with my favorite people. It’s important to take the time to be social and share the thoughts in your head.
With your new routine, you’ll have the opportunity to make new friends and cultivate communities based on this. Embrace this time and have fun getting to know other people and letting them get to know you as well. Go to the work events and socials and see who you connect with or who you’re drawn to. Sometimes you may be around people that you just “click” with. Follow up with your intuitions and find time to meet with new potential friends. It’s going to take time and effort to build up new and genuine friendships just like any relationship. Be patient and don’t force anything.
Health
The longer I’m on this earth the more I understand the importance of taking care of your body. In order to be at your best and show up the way you want at work and for those important to you, it’s important to prioritize your physical, mental, and emotional health. The first step for many people who’ve recently graduated and started working full time is finding an actual primary care provider and figuring out how to set up your insurance and benefits. This step can be kind of confusing and like a maze of adult decisions you never wanted to be in. But it’s just something you have to do. For this step, I asked questions to HR coordinators and peers to get an idea of what options to chose. Then I started prioritizing figuring out what was going on with my stomach issues and have been on top of that issue ever since.
An easy way for me to check in with all of my health appointments is by setting aside the month of May to make sure I’m all caught up with appointments. It just so happened that May was the month I scheduled my first well-woman checkup so for the last few years I just scheduled everything else in that month as well. I make appointments for naturopath, dentist, massages, gastroenterologist and anything else health-related. I also think it’ll be nice to remember because it’s the month of Mother’s Day so when I have a family in the future I’ll always remember to make my appointments that month lol. But anyways, adulting does have it’s responsibilities like this but I feel so much better knowing I’m doing everything I can to have a healthy body.
With any stage in life, having a focus on self-care and wellness will benefit you in so many ways. Make it a point to implement self-care into your day each day. If you don’t already have a routine for this, you can start in small steps such as doing breathing exercises or writing down 5 things you’re grateful for each night. Prioritizing self-care right at the start of your career helps ingrain it into your habits to the point where it will be normalized and you can take it with you throughout any stage in life as life goes through its cycles.
Literally Just Have Fun
At the end of the day, we are all just doing the best we can. This past year has had its trials and tribulations but I would say I have done a good job of moving in optimism with the changes and being proactive about doing the work I need to do to grow as a person. There will be obstacles and life lessons that have to happen regardless of whether you just graduated or not. I realize that I am still so young and figuring things out. I don’t have to have the answers to everything yet. But I do like where I am right now and the life I’ve cultivated for myself. If you’re still trying to find your groover, it’s okay to give yourself time to find it. Look at the present and not how things “should be”. Go to events you like, meet up with people you like, and be someone that you yourself likes…well actually someone that you love. The personal development that has happened in this last year is tremendous and I am thankful for it. College was fun but I wouldn’t want to go back. I still think each chapter just gets better and better. So I am being more mindful of my everyday actions to be present and enjoy this stage as well.
Remember,
