So I’m one of about 20 students graduating at the half-way point. Graduating in December is really melodramatic. The college basically reminds you about your loans, hands you a piece of paper, pats you on the butt, and wishes you well as they send you on your way.
Everyone else is asking me what I’m going to do after graduation.
I typically start by saying something stupid about a job posting I saw once on the internet or a company I read about that uses bean bag chairs and has lime green walls. Then I’ll say something real vague about my resume, mention the words liberal arts, and finally just start making monkey sounds and beating my chest. It’s round-about way of admitting I have no clue.
After all, I went to Hillsdale College. I thought we didn’t need to worry about jobs and careers and stuff. I majored in history. It never crossed my mind I’d have to get a job.
But I play along and act like I want to do something professional, something for grown-ups.
Maybe the first thing I’m going to do after I graduate is crack open a nice cold beer, sit down with my old man, and shoot the breeze. I’ve got a nice bachelor pad in my folk’s basement. No need to worry too much. Plus I can pretend that I’m Matthew McConaughey and my parents are paying Sarah Jessica Parker to date me in order to get me to leave. Best of all in the evenings I can yell goodnight to all my family members like I’m John Boy Walton.
Forgive me for being a smartass. But I’ve just grown to hate the question, “what will you do after graduation?”
It makes us kids feel bad. We get stressed. We need to put a stop to it.
Maybe I take it personally because I don’t know but maybe I think it’s silly to expect to know what you want and start building a career right out of the gate. It seems so anti-liberal arts. As if I know what I want to do with the rest my life. All I know is I don’t want a desk. I just got done reading the Odyssey. Now I am supposed to go sell insurance?
Instead of starting a career, I made a list of things I want to do. It made me feel so official I put it in that black folder career services gives you. Here’s what I got: I’ve always wanted to learn to weld and my uncle said come down to his shop this winter and make some cash. I might try to write some articles for the Hillsdale Daily News. Maybe I’ll write a book about Chief Baw Beese.
Maybe I’m terribly misguided. Maybe I will realize the errors of my ways. If you find me living in a box in five years outside Broad Street Market, I’ll understand when you laugh – just have enough courtesy to pick me up a bottle. In the meantime, I’m going follow my curiosity, work hard, and see what happens.
Seeing as this will be the last thing I ever write for The Collegian, I’d like to thank all the amazing students and faculty I’ve known for four wonderful years.