I know I haven't been writing in this blog, for a LONG time, so I've decided to try and make more of an effort. It's funny, I used to be such an avid blogger back in the day... now it never crosses my mind to ever post anymore. So what to talk about? Well, today, I decided to share my thoughts about my impressions as a recently graduated college student.

So what's life like after college? Honestly? It kind of sucks. If there's one bit of advise I can give to you kids out there, who are just entering college, or are deciding what major to pick: choose verrrrrry carefully. I was one of the bright, young individuals who decided to pick Psychology as a major; not because it would help me in my career goals, but because I found it interesting. Now, I'm a college graduate with a degree that's not going to help me worth squat. I still keep in contact with two of my friends from my college, who had the same major, and they both tell me the same thing: their Psychology degree hasn't helped them at all in finding a job. I have another friend who graduated with an English degree. A friend asked him to come out with us for lunch: he said he was a little too strapped for cash. I'm just going to assume that means he's having a hard time with post-college life, as well. 

It's sad, really... and what's even sadder is that, despite the obvious mistake I made in choosing a major with very little real world benefit, there are tons of other people who are making the same mistake. They end up choosing history, art history, or women studies. Yeah, they might all sound interesting at the time, but you have to stop and ask yourself: "What can I do with that after I graduate?" Answer? Not much. The truth is, there are only three possible reasons why you picked a major like that:

1) You were REALLY interested in the subject, and decided it would be worthwhile to dedicate four years of your life to find out more about this wholly useless field, or 2) you didn't really know what you wanted to do with you life, and that subject just sounded the most interesting to you, OR 3) you were positively clueless about what you wanted or why you were even in college, took one class in a certain field, found you didn't hate it, took another class in the said field, and then thought to yourself. 'Hell, I've already invested two classes into it, I might as well see this through to the end.'

Regardless of your reason, all three of those choices have one thing in common: they involved you picking a major without putting a lot of thought into it (unless you picked it because you wanted to devote your life to the field as a career... then great for you!). Don't feel too bad about it, I did it, too... and there are plenty more people who are going to make the same mistake. So... you must be asking yourself, what does this mean? Well, simply put, all you've really accomplished is getting a college degree. The degree itself is utterly useless, but you have one thing on your plate: you're a college graduate. Basically, now what you can do is use that as leverage to get some job that has nothing at all to do with what you've spent the last four years of your life learning. Also, the better the school you went to, the better chance you have of getting hired against someone who also picked a useless major, but went to a crappier school. 

 Now, if you're still in college, and got a ways to go... don't make the same mistake I made. If you're really serious about following up on your major, then go ahead and stick to your guns, but if you're almost on your way to graduating and have yet to participate in a research study with a prominent professor in your field or to get those nice recommendation letters from your professors, then you should really ask yourself just how committed you really are. Otherwise, do yourself a favor, and pick something that has a little more real world benefit, like Business or Economics.

If you're already out of college, and find yourself in the same boat as me... then your options are a bit more limited. You have three possible outcomes/choices...

1) You can find out that your job options are pretty limited (financially), and decide to try out for graduate school. If so, be a lot more careful about what degree you decide to go after. If you've already set your mind on something and know that it's what you want, then knock yourself out. If you have even the slightest bit of doubt, however, go with something that's versatile and will help you out in the business world. Even if that degree might not aim towards an area you originally had interest in, it'll be a lot better if you have an open-ended degree that'll give you some leeway, than some highly specific degree that you suddenly realize you don't want to use. 

2) Decide that you've had enough of school, and that you're just going to rough it. If that's the case, then you'd better be a friggin social butterfly, be extremely attractive, and/or insanely intelligent. If you don't possess any of the aforementioned traits I've mentioned, then don't bother roughing "it," cause it's going to rough you.

3) You decide to hitch up with someone whose rich. If this option is open to you, well, you have my blessings. 

I think it's pretty obvious that more schooling is the best option to go for, if you find yourself with a very useless degree. Get some decent job to support yourself, buckle down, and be prepared to spend a few more years in that nightmare you thought you had just left behind. If you're really sick of school then take some time off, but don't let it go past a year. School isn't something you can take a long break from and still hope to do successfully. You need to be conditioned for it, and it's not easy to keep yourself "prepped" for. One of my close friends graduated last winter, and he decided to take a break... I've been pushing him to go  back to school by next winter. The longer you spend putting off going back to school, the less realistic the possibility of you going back will become; you don't know how many  30-something people I've already met who are currently bank tellers, or work at some crap retail job, and don't know how they got there. Many of them tell me it was supposed to be a temporary thing until they went back to school. I have a friend who was intent on going to law school; now she's thinking of just sticking with her current, low-paying job for the next five years. It's easy to get comfortable, so try and constantly push yourself towards school before it becomes too late. I don't want to sound like a downer for all you 30-somethings who find yourselves in this very situation that I'm talking about. If you don't like your job, then do some time management and try to get yourself back to school. It's never too late to change your life. It may be hard, it may be stressful (for a while), but if it'll take you somewhere better, isn't it worth it?  

So you must be wondering: after all this talk, what am I doing right now? Well, as luck would have it, when I was in college I hadn't only taken psychology; I had also been a premed student, but due to some issues I had decided not to follow through with it. However, I've lately been interested in dentistry, and it just so happens that the requirements for taking the dental school entrance exam is identical to that of medical school. Although I didn't finish all the requirements, I DID finish most of them... so I'm currently trying to get the rest of the classes done, and will be registering for the test next year. As you can see, I decided to go with option 1. Wish me luck!

Anyways, this is my general perception of life after college, so far. I know there are going to be a lot of people who don't agree with me... and that's OK. You're entitled to your opinion. If you had a crappy major, were ugly and mean-tempered, and still managed to be wildly successful... that's great, but know that you're a rarity. Most people I know who had a useless major either went back to school (some ended up picking YET ANOTHER major "just cause"), are currently jumping between several low paying and crappy jobs, or were insanely lucky enough to find some job that paid well, even though it had nothing to do with their original degree. Of course, that then just came down to having good people skills: they were able to convince someone to hire them for a job that they were in no way qualified for. 

God, I'm getting very sleepy. I have a feeling I'm going to wake up tomorrow, read what I wrote, and realize none of it made any sense.