Is my journey the same as yours?

As Monica from FRIENDS once said, “ Welcome to the real world. It sucks, but you are gonna love it!”, I am welcoming you to the digital world of intellectual morons and moronic intellectuals.

When I first heard this dialogue, I was just a sophomore eagerly waiting to be an adult. My first reaction was, why does it suck. I am not going to let it suck. Pretty funny, isn’t it? I am gonna be a fun-loving, enjoyable adult with everything figured out. And now here I am, two years after my graduation, and not knowing where my passion lies. Leaving my job and just aimlessly wandering through this sweet job market not knowing which job to apply to. I think we all have been through this. We read the responsibilities and qualifications of the profile and doubt ourselves whether we are even capable enough for the given responsibilities.

What I feel is, when we graduate and enter a so-called real world, we didn’t have the capabilities to become an adult and yet we just went through not knowing what’s going to happen. What path lies ahead is extremely difficult where there’s a blindfold in your eyes. We get to stumble upon many things, we make mistakes, trust the wrong people. But from all these experiences we learn. We learn about the world, how fun is it or how much it sucks.

Until graduation everything was fine, or I can say more than fine, I was ready to take on the world, just like every graduated student cum adult. On this front I am just gonna phrase a quote I find hysterical: Always remember you are absolutely unique, just like everyone else. There are about 100 thousand million stars in our Milky Way alone, each star has their own uniqueness, such that we as an individual are also unique in our own way. Thinking of ourselves as mediocre is like thinking we are just a small fish in a fishbowl.

It took me one and half years to know I am not happy enough in my job and another 5 months to actually gather up the courage and leave that job. Nobody in our previous world (university), prepares us for this kind of decision. We as an adult worry so much about what’s gonna happen that we don’t take a stand to make a significant change. That is why many of us are still dreaming about that wonderful job with awesome perks or that business with all the freedom instead of making the jump.

I know, I know, now you will say I have a lot of responsibilities, I have to take care of that and this stands in my way, etc etc, but my advice is just to sleep one hour less each day. Give that one hour just for your dream. Eventually that one hour will transcend into an investment that you will be thankful for your entire life.

Believe me, all of us go through this at least once in our life. That idol person you are looking up to, that friend you compare yourself to, and also your boss, everyone. You just have to make small changes today which will result in big changes tomorrow. The most important thing is to start somewhere without procrastinating. The sooner you get up and start changing little things around you, the sooner you will feel like you have accomplished something. Try completing a 1% task and gradually increase it, don’t burden yourself. There’s always a ray of sunshine after a night, and honestly many of us love the night sky more. So, there is always some blessing in disguise, just keep your eyes open to look for it.

So, to all the fresh graduates who are struggling because of hard times, “Welcome to the real world. It sucks, but you’re gonna love it!”

And to all the professionals, what was your journey like?