The real world? It’s complicated.
A few weeks back, two friends of a friend asked me how I was liking the real world. Both of them were still in college and wouldn’t be graduating till next May.
What was it like to come home in the evenings and not have an essay to write or exam to study for? What was it like having to pay for everything yourself now? What was it like having to (gasp) make your own doctor/dentist appointments?
Having graduated less than 10 months ago, I still have adjusting when it comes to the elusive “real world”. The biggest thing I’ve realized so far is you usually don’t have more free time in the real world than in college.
This may seem like common sense, but many soon to be graduates don’t realize it. They think since they don’t have things to formally study for anymore, they will have more free time. Well, not exactly.
There are so many things I have to plan and schedule now that I’m working a full-time job that I didn’t have to do when I was a full-time college student and working part-time. An obvious one is this blog. I used to write stuff on the fly and post it. Things aren’t like that anymore. My job extends well beyond the 9-5 boundaries. With dinner, laundry, and other errands consuming time, if I don’t make time for writing, it usually doesn’t happen.
I’m still trying to find the whole “work/life balance” thing. Sometimes after a long day at work, all I want to do is sit and do nothing. It takes effort to do extra things you want to do outside of work. Exercising, writing, various hobbies, they all take effort to carve out a time to do them outside of work.
I’m still learning. How about you?