Maybe it's a first world thing, or and American thing, or even a young adult thing, but I want it all. When I say this, I am not being materialistic. I don't want a Maserati or designer clothes or even to go to a five-star restaurant. I just want a good job, with a nice salary and to be happy in that job. I want it all at once or at least all at the same time. I might be acting foolish or selfish, but these are my thoughts.
A lot of adults think they have our number. We are used to instant gratification. With a tap of the finger. we have the entire world on our phones by our sides 24/7. Want to find the nearest restaurant? Google maps. No free hands to text? That's okay. Talk to your phone. They say because of this, we expect everything to work as fast as the internet and our phones, or witch craft as my dad calls it. So, when the annual graduating college seniors step off the stage with diploma in hand, we expect a job to come flying to us just as fast as we can download "selfies" on Instagram.
These record playing old-timers might be onto us, (sorry mom) but is it so wrong to want what they had in an age where the competition wasn't so fierce? Health care, 401K, a full-time salary. Technology might have turned us into an attention deficit and impatient bunch, but what happened to the promise of a better future? Education is supposed to be a good, no great investment. And unless you are as smart as Steve Jobs, it doesn't look very bright. Although I shouldn't complain if I get a job with a salary close to what I would make working at Wal-Mart full-time, they told me the degree would help. They said I could have it all, and that is what I want. Starting from the bottom is fine, but if the bottom is below the very bottom, where is the room to climb up?
I want a $50,000 a year job where I am happy and doing what I love, where I have the option to buy Armani or Guess and not worry about affording gas and food. I want to be able to put money into my savings account...and keep it there. I want to use my talents and intellect on something worth while. If I can't do this, maybe I might as well forget about my degree and work at Wal-Mart. At least it would be justified.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Surfs Up!
Yesterday evening, I went surfing for the first time in the Atlantic Ocean at the beautiful Jersey Shore. My friend brought me out to teach me, along with my sister and her pals. It was an amazing feeling! Frightening, but fun.
The hardest thing about surfing is not balancing, which I thought it would be; it's actually remembering to do all five steps at once in roughly 30 seconds. After all, you only have about that amount of time before a wave breaks, if even that long. I learned to lay on the board properly at first: Chest half-way on the board, hands griped firmly at the side of the board, limbs relaxed, and then the hard, scoop-like paddling. For those of you who are pro-surfers or have surfed before, you know then how tiring it is to paddle hard ahead of a wave. That was my arm exercise for the night!
The standing up motion is quick. You have to kick your body up in a crouching position and sprout up with your front and back foot placed in just the right position. You tie all this together, and you have yourself a simple recipe for conquering waves...right? Wrong. It was not as graceful as I originally thought.
When it was time for me to catch some waves, I gently walked into the water with the board at my side and cord attached to my foot. It was almost 8 p.m. and the waves were roaring and crashing hard and fast. The board felt heavy, so that was issue number one. Every time a wave came at me, I ducked under and the board got away from me. I finally hopped on, problem number two, and my friend told me to turn my board so I was facing away from the forming waves. "Huh, what," I thought to myself. I thought I had to face the waves, you know paddle toward them and then jump up before they break. Nope. Technical error on my part.
I was told to start paddling as a wave was lifting me and the board high, and I did. The wave was under me and as it pushed me, my speed was accelerating and I felt as if I were on a coaster at six flags! Then it wouldn't stop, the nose heading for shore. "Shit!!" I screamed. I rolled off the board as the wave crashed over me. I tumbled around and around, scrapping my back and legs on the rough sandy floor. The board was pulling me, but I got up, ear and nose filled with salty water. It was awesome!
I continued to do the same exact thing a couple times. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stand up. Remember the part where I said this activity takes like a five step thought process? Well, I couldn't wrap my head or body around five which is the quick standing motion. Even after everyone was shouting at me to stand, "You have this! Go, go, go!" I just laid flat on the board like a bottom dwelling fish. So again myself, along with my board, would get sucked into the ocean's fury. In the end, I left the beach with a few scrapes and sand burns on my skin, but I was happy.
This is going to sound corny, but surfing is like life. The unforgiving situations of life will grab you and engulf you, and the weight of the world will try to drag you down, but you must fight and get up, willing to get back in, board in hand, excited to try again. Don't let the waves conquer you, conquer the waves.
The hardest thing about surfing is not balancing, which I thought it would be; it's actually remembering to do all five steps at once in roughly 30 seconds. After all, you only have about that amount of time before a wave breaks, if even that long. I learned to lay on the board properly at first: Chest half-way on the board, hands griped firmly at the side of the board, limbs relaxed, and then the hard, scoop-like paddling. For those of you who are pro-surfers or have surfed before, you know then how tiring it is to paddle hard ahead of a wave. That was my arm exercise for the night!
The standing up motion is quick. You have to kick your body up in a crouching position and sprout up with your front and back foot placed in just the right position. You tie all this together, and you have yourself a simple recipe for conquering waves...right? Wrong. It was not as graceful as I originally thought.
When it was time for me to catch some waves, I gently walked into the water with the board at my side and cord attached to my foot. It was almost 8 p.m. and the waves were roaring and crashing hard and fast. The board felt heavy, so that was issue number one. Every time a wave came at me, I ducked under and the board got away from me. I finally hopped on, problem number two, and my friend told me to turn my board so I was facing away from the forming waves. "Huh, what," I thought to myself. I thought I had to face the waves, you know paddle toward them and then jump up before they break. Nope. Technical error on my part.
I was told to start paddling as a wave was lifting me and the board high, and I did. The wave was under me and as it pushed me, my speed was accelerating and I felt as if I were on a coaster at six flags! Then it wouldn't stop, the nose heading for shore. "Shit!!" I screamed. I rolled off the board as the wave crashed over me. I tumbled around and around, scrapping my back and legs on the rough sandy floor. The board was pulling me, but I got up, ear and nose filled with salty water. It was awesome!
I continued to do the same exact thing a couple times. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stand up. Remember the part where I said this activity takes like a five step thought process? Well, I couldn't wrap my head or body around five which is the quick standing motion. Even after everyone was shouting at me to stand, "You have this! Go, go, go!" I just laid flat on the board like a bottom dwelling fish. So again myself, along with my board, would get sucked into the ocean's fury. In the end, I left the beach with a few scrapes and sand burns on my skin, but I was happy.
This is going to sound corny, but surfing is like life. The unforgiving situations of life will grab you and engulf you, and the weight of the world will try to drag you down, but you must fight and get up, willing to get back in, board in hand, excited to try again. Don't let the waves conquer you, conquer the waves.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Sitting Duck Syndrome
Ah, the trial, tribulations and joys of post-bachelor's job search...I think the majority of us millennial children know how this feels, on account that around 40% of us young Americans hold bachelor's degrees.
We've seen the numbers, read all the articles and heard horror stories from undergrads of the past. They are calling our economical state the worst down fall since the great depression. Great. I am so glad I have a degree! And congratulations to those of you who have found a job since leaving college life behind. Kudos to you! Either God really loves you, you have great luck or you are just that damn good. But for the rest of us unemployed and struggling undergrads, we will mush together and become the new yearly statistic in The Wall Street Journal. I always wanted to be famous, I just never knew it would be anonymous.
For those of you who decided to go back to school for a higher degree, awesome. Stall, stall as much as you can. As long as you can afford it, over qualify and stall. For those of you who chose a recession proof major like health, medicine or criminal justice, you are smart, very smart. I must have missed the list of worst and best jobs in Forbes because journalism was definitely on that worst list.
I will spare you the numbers and facts you already knew about the aftermath of graduation. Instead, you can read about my experience for the next couple minutes. Maybe you will relate, maybe not. You might laugh at me or just be sad for me. But really, I know most of us are in the same boat so bare with me.
It has only been over two months since I graduated from SUNY New Paltz and about one month since I received the piece of paper in the mail that cost me my blood, sweat, tears and oh right, money. My childhood dream was to become a doctor, but I got my journalism degree instead (that is another story for another day and blog). Do I like to write? Sure. Do I think journalism is the best thing that has ever happened to me? Not quite. But for now, that is the job market I am getting myself into. So far, I am 43 applications into the process. Enough? Not nearly. I know people submit 100 before getting an interview. I'm not a mathematician, but that means I will have to painfully submit 57 more applications in hopes of one actually contacting me and then calling me in for an interview. If I decide to submit to 5 jobs a week, it will take me over one month to get an interview-an interview that 50 other people just like me are going to have. 50 people, half of which have been searching longer than I have, two or three years maybe.
Then there is option two. Go back to where I started. I can apply to the types of part time jobs I left - the ones I left in order to start a career in the first place-just to pass the time and make money so I can live. Of course, now I will be over qualified for a cashier or associate position. So, this brings me to option three. Go back to school, for my master's, a second bachelor's, anything at all because right now, I am a sitting duck.
According to the dictionary, a sitting duck is a helpless victim or easy target. I don't consider myself a helpless person or a victim by any means. However, in my current situation, I have fallen victim to a well known phenomena of this country. A route that young people all over the country take every year. Over qualify yourself in order to stand on the production line, waiting for someone to call your number, waiting for the person ahead of you to fall so you can take their place. Helpless in the sense that at 22, when I should be starting my life, I am simply delaying it for God knows how long. Living with my parents for at least five more years. Working for hourly wages when I worked so hard to make a real career for myself so that I would be happy, but I am just becoming more frustrated and miserable by the minute. Everyone tells me that something will come up and that I have to be aggressive for what I want in life. I knew it wouldn't be this easy, but I thought I would have a better chance.
They say there is a light at the end of all dark tunnels. Although it is far from view, I would like to think it is going to be here really soon.
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