Exactly one year ago I was in the midst of trying to balance my super cool (unpaid) summer internship and summer job. I was reflecting on my somewhat rash and deeply thought out decision to quit rowing and most importantly I was eagerly awaiting the start of senior year. What I would do to rewind back to those days. Senior year has rapidly come and gone with memories and friendships that will last a life-time. I met some pretty cool new people, strengthened the bonds with my old friends and unfortunately lost some friendships along the way. I shared experience that I will forever cherish and most importantly I grew a lot as a person. Here I am lying alone a month after graduation struggling to see what’s next. Unfortunately this is the case for many of us recent college grads. For the first time in our lives we are completely lost and confused as to what our next move is. I have always avoided my issues and insecurities by staying busy. For as long as I can remember I have been balancing daily sports practices with countless other activities which range from community involvement to theater on top of a job. Its safe to say I never had much free-time. Like many other recent grads, I have always been very fortunate that everything has always just fallen into place. My first job I got on the spot after strolling over during breakfast one day, I got into a few nice colleges and was able to easily choose one and when it came time for an internship I miraculously got one the week before summer began. This luck unfortunately did not carry through into my job search. Over the past month I have applied to hundreds of jobs. Trust me, anything in the NYC area with analyst in it has probably received at least one application from me. Though not having a job sucks, the worst part is the uncertainty and sense of failure that comes attached with it. Additionally, the offers I have gotten back have all been slightly shady, earning commission through door to door sales. After weeks of receiving and avoiding these offers, I’m starting to believe that in order to get started in this “business world” this is my only option. So why am I writing about all this? Thousands of us are in that same boat and I want to offer some words of encouragement to my fellow slightly depressed recent grads. As the great scholar Dr. Seuss once said “You’re off to great places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.” Though I know it sucks right now, stay strong… we’ve spent our entire lives working hard and something will come up. Stay strong, be patient and most of all stay true to yourself. May the odds forever be in your favor Lissa <3 “You’re off to great places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.” Dr. Suess This is sort of a longer Note To Self but I had a lovely realization today.... SOCIAL MEDIA FREAKING SUCKS!!!
This is old news and there are countless studies which have proven this over time but this really stuck today. Again, Many studies have found that no matter how much we love our facebook, twitter (is that still relevant) and instagram, these sites do in fact have a negative impact of our lives. Our "life" on social media is honestly nothing more then a heightened version of our life being painted how we want to remember it. I am in no way saying this is a bad thing because obviously we want to remember memories with the good but its when we use other peoples "lives" and use it to compare to our own that the issue occurs. Earlier today my sister called me about 2 minutes after being tagged on facebook saying how it looks like I had so much fun yesterday on Halloween and how jealous she was. I heard this and chuckled to myself because I felt the same way. Here was my gorgeous younger sister who is in a picture perfect relationship snapchatting me photos of her and her boyfriend being a greek god and goddess at her friends party and she is jealous of my Halloween which was in-reality very uneventful. I realized looking at this photo however that this photo portrayed a second of the day. The pictures we post, however candid are always posed and only portray a fraction of our most heightened lives. This being said it is too easy to look at others pictures and believe they have this picture perfect life. When we look at these photos our peers post we (or at least me) get jealous and depressed but we have to realize this is a second of their day and we don't know the full story. Most of us won't post on days like today where we are sporting the baggy t-shit, sweatpants and top-bun look. These aren't the days we want to remember, so instead of bringing yourself down take a second and cut the self-jugement. Strive everyday to be happy with who you are and remember everyone's lives isn't what is being seen on social media. |