While I was growing up, I had a hell of a lot of fun. My very early years were spent going to the local sports complex with my dad and my little brother, playing backyard baseball/soccer/tag with a gaggle of kids from the neighborhood, having fashion shows with gear from my massive dress-up box for my mom. Then, as I got older, my friends and I started throwing boy-girl parties involving air hockey tournaments and games of spin the bottle, and would have sleepovers where we dyed our hair and cleaned the house on Saturday afternoons so my mom would give us movie money.

In my early teen years I’d hang out at the skatepark and take trips out of town with as many people as we could pack in a van to watch bands play; later, at the end of my high school career, weeknights were spent driving around, listening to jams and making pointless stops at WalMart, and weekends were spent partaking in outlandish late-night drinking shenanigans accompanied by board games.

Then I went to college. And while some of my best friends did attend the same school as me, and while I did meet a handful of fantastic new people, for the most part, I was pretty miserable. I went from a small town where I had known everyone for 5+ years to a giant school filled with rich kids from suburbia who wouldn’t know real fun if it kicked them in the teeth. Read More »

I’m in a constant state of post-graduation crisis, and I’m still a year away from graduating.

Honestly, I’ve been freaked out about the prospect of going out into the real world ever since I graduated from high school. I have no idea what I want to do with my life, where I want to live, or how I am going to make as much money as my ideal lifestyle requires. It’s a horrible state of suspended animation, college, but here are some books I’ve read that have calmed me down a little and turned some of that fear into excitement about all my future post-collegiate adventures.

1. I’m an English Major–Now What?
I saw this book and absolutely had to have it because I was an English major in my undergrad and I could relate to the title’s implied panic. It’s actually a useful book for anyone in the liberal arts and offers advice on how to break into magazines, newspapers, publishing, and, of course, the ol English major standby, teaching. This book also has a nice section on whether or not to go on to grad school that I found very useful in the beginning of my grad school process.

2. How to Survive the Real World
I love this book because it’s made up of advice from hundreds of people (naturally, as it is a part of the awesome ‘hundreds of heads’ series) who understand the difficulty inherent in graduating from college and striking out on your own, because they‘ve all done it to various degrees of success. There is advice on everything from how to find a job, to paying bills, to staying healthy, to cooking and other basic survival skills, to forming lasting relationships. My copy of this book is probably more highlighted and dog-eared than just about any other book in my library Read More »

Even at the beginning of my senior year, my friends and I were starting to discuss where we would end up after school.

It was a given that I would be around New York City because that is the place to go for my future career. Not to mention the fact that I absolutely love the place and had the time of my life interning over the course of two different summers. Lucky for me, a good amount of people from my school also head down there to start “real” lives.

My experience was similar to a new trend that has really started with our generation. That new fad being putting priority on WHERE you will be living, instead of WHAT you will be doing. Recent grads tend to decide what city they want to live in, and then the job comes secondary.

The job tends to be something figured out once you have moved to the chosen location, as was my experience, which made for many stressful unemployed days filled with cupcakes and wondering just how I was going to get by. Eventually things worked out and I can officially say I am employed in my chosen field and have my own apartment.

But, this ballsiness (is that even a word?) is something that our parents are not used to. Long gone are the days of sending out resumes to every viable city or town in America and seeing where you get a bite. We refuse to live in a horrible town just to have a job, which I think is a great philosophy. Read More »