Life after graduation: How I've settled into semi-adult life

On my vision board, I’ve got this picture of a birthday cake that says two numbers; 25 and 27.

According to the picture, 25 is when you’re at your happiest, and 27 is when you’re at your healthiest.

When I graduated university a few months ago, I didn’t know what to expect. How long would it take me to find a job? How much would I make at that job? Would I have to keep my current job to make ends meet? How much free time would I have? What would I do with that free time? How in the heck am I going to pay off these student loans? And most importantly, am I really going to be my happiest at 25?

This Thanksgiving, I did that really typical thing where you count all your blessings and think about all the things you’re grateful for. And much to my surprise, a lot of the worries and concerns that I had at the beginning of the year had disappeared without me even noticing their absence.

In January, tensions were high. I had to do a three-month unpaid internship while working full-time and taking a math course I found extremely difficult that was required in order to graduate. I had forked over some serious cash for a tutor who I would see whenever I had a second off work or school. I really wasn’t sure whether I’d make it to convocation in June.

There were several days I came home teary-eyed and defeated by 16-hour days. My parents, friends and even a few strangers heard all about it.

You get anxiety. Especially as a woman. Your biological clock is ticking. People are getting pregnant, engaged, married or all three everytime you blink. House prices are skyrocketing. All you want is a crystal ball that tells you you'll have it all in just a few years. But when that uncertainty looms in the air, it's hard to breathe sometimes.

Luckily, by the end of that internship, and certainly by the time I got that magical letter in the mail letting me know that finally, after six years, I’d satisfied the graduation sensei and was granted permission to graduate, things had worked themselves out.

First, I was able to land a job in my field just before graduation. It’s great pay, and I love the job I do. I take pride in it, I enjoy my coworkers, and I leave there everyday a tad bit more knowledgeable than I was when I arrived.

In terms of my student loan, living at home has allowed me to make significant dents in my payback amount, which was a whopping $22,000 just four months ago, and it currently sits at just under $10,000. According to my math, which like I said, isn't very good, that's $12,000 in repayment in just four months. Not bad.

Sure, it kills me to know that this money could be in the bank, but the cost of school was worth every penny. And strangely, I enjoy the challenge of trying to meet my deadline of full repayment by July 2017.

As I get closer and closer to the age of 25, I realize that maybe that’s the age Women’s Health magazine predicts us to be our happiest because while we are adults, we are still kids in a way.

My eye doctor gave me a “student discount” the other day despite me telling him I had finally graduated. Whenever I need something from my parents, I remind them that I’m in “repayment mode”, which prompts some sympathy and a hand with whatever task I’m facing.

But like I said, we’re also adults. I’ve set up RRSPs. My boyfriend and I have made a five-year plan that will hopefully result in home ownership, marriage, and some adorable, healthy kids.

I’ve heard people say that debt is just a part of life. I’ve heard people say that you can’t get everything you want. But I don’t want to be in debt. And I do want it all. To get that, I haven’t been able to completely part with those 16-hour days, and I’m limited to about one day off every two weeks. I’ve got a very boring social life, but people understand. If people truly love you and understand your goals and your mission, they understand.

One thing I’ve realized about life is that the things you want truly are yours for the taking. There’s obstacles. Tons. There’s competition. There’s lots and lots of “no’s”. But commitment, persistence and hard work can get you to the places that you want to be.

I wasn’t sure what to expect after graduation, and I’m not sure what to expect when I turn 25 in a few months, but I wouldn’t trade anything about my busy, tiresome, whirlwind days for anything that I could’ve imagined. And I truly believe that the best is yet to come.

Why I did better in university than college

When I switched into the joint program for journalism at University of Toronto, I was heart-broken to discover that I’d have to spend three semesters in college.

I’m not even too sure why to be honest.

I guess I felt like it was a downgrade. Maybe a lot of people go from university to college, but that was never in my plans. My parents were so proud of me for making it into one of Canada’s most high-ranked and elite universities, would they look down on me for being in college? Would my degree equate to less because some of my time in post-secondary was acquired in a college?

And, why am I still paying university tuition if I’m doing college-level courses?

The first day I got to college, I was so unimpressed my eyebrows couldn’t sink any lower into the middle of my face if I had been photoshopped. The campus was a bit smaller than my high school. It was a huge square with a small outdoor space in the middle and monotonous paint colours that made me nauseous after a while.

But the teachers were surprisingly lively.

In our first semester, we learned news reporting, copy-editing, page design, and imaging. The classes were so unlike anything I’d ever taken in university. We learned so much about the theory of journalism, the elements of journalism and transnational issues in university that I thought it would take me getting into the workforce to do things like this.

Our assignments came quickly and piled up even faster and challenged my peers and I in a way we hadn’t been challenged before. We had class discussions just as we had in university, but we did work. A lot of work.

After receiving high 70s and high 80s in university on essays and written assignments and 90s for my participation, I expected to be even better in college. After all, college is so much easier than university isn’t it?

The truth is, it’s not.

It might even be more difficult. For journalism anyway, and a lot of other courses that require serious hands-on training.

The thing is, university is all about theory. We sit in lectures for an hour or two and listen (perhaps) to the history of our field. We learn about the famous people who paved the way for the men and women hoping to make it, and we write essays, reflections, midterms and exams.

But in college, we write. We learn. We read. We talk to each other. We debate. We discuss. We engage. We indulge in news every single day. We write draft after draft and it still isn’t good enough. Our teachers are hard on us. They cover our paper in red pen and tell us we should know how to spell these words by now, commas don’t go there, and didn’t your copy-editor teach you this already?

I did better in university than I did in college because I was pushed in college, whereas whatever I handed in was "good enough" in university, and "good enough" gets you good grades.

A lot of people take the easy way out because it’s, well, easy. But there is nothing to be gained from easy. If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you. You don’t make it to the highest level in a video game by selecting the easiest level each time you play. You don’t improve at a sport by ensuring your opponents are less qualified than you. And you don’t make it anywhere, and I mean anywhere, by refusing to challenge yourself when necessary and even when not.

Sometimes we judge books by their covers. Sometimes we think we’re too good or too old to learn some of the simplest lessons that are relayed via Disney movies or Robert Munch books. But sometimes, if we just open our eyes we see the message that we missed the first, second and maybe even third time.

University may have taught me to open my eyes, but it was college that helped me to see.