So this weekend for many people university is officially over. My last semester lasted a measly 3 days and I've spent much of the last 2 months saying good bye to Cheltenham in a particularly unhealthy way. Trouble is, when all the fun and goodbyes are over the panic starts to set in and the pressure of becoming a fully functioning, career driven adult, begins to creep over you.
This should be an exciting time for me I have a good degree behind me and some excellent journalistic skills to help build my career but all I feel is panic and apprehension. This may be due to the current job climate, however any graduate worth hiring will use their initiative to find jobs and work placements. I have been doing this and there is work out there, it is just my geographical and financial situations that are holding me back.
To do a standard 3 month internship at a magazine I should ideally live nearby, or close to, said magazine. This costs money which is something I have very little of and if the internship is unpaid I'll need to save money in order to get by while at work there. This will take time and lots of it. I thought about commuting from my home town into London every day but even that would be a financial tragedy and probably leave me a broken, hollow and bitter man after three months of three hour train rides a day.
I think during university in the final academic year you should have 'real life classes' that prepare you for the post uni depression almost everyone I know is suffering from. These classes should be made up of modules like 'how to work a shit job you don't care about in order to get a job your do care about' and 'how to stay in and save money when you are used to going out whenever you want and having the time of your life'.
All jokes aside it is the purpose of university that I miss the most not the drinking (contrary to popular belief). It's the feeling of working towards something you really enjoy that could potentially turn into a career. It's the feeling of getting excited about the work you produce when you think of doing the same sort of work and actually being paid for it. It's the feeling of having a career you love instead of one you need. I always had that safety net of I'm studying to be a journalist and now it is all over I'm asking myself why aren't I a journalist already? I guess this is a good outlook to have as it will keep me motivated I just hope I don't end up like one of those guys who people ask;
"So what did you do at uni?"
"Oh I studied journalism"
"and what do you do now?"
"I work in a job I hate, because the money is ok and I got comfortable".
Fuck that, time to sort my life out.
