You Can Love Your Life Now!

By Charlene M Brown

I don’t know about you, but when I was in college, I was under the false impression that based on the education I was supposedly receiving, I would have job offers flying off the table when I was done!

This was not the case at all when I finished college!

College doesn’t tell you what it’s like trying to get a job in a tough economy. College doesn’t teach you to fend for yourself when you are not the golden child!

As I neared the end of my college career, I had a few interviews, but none that I wanted to take. But I was lucky to even have those!

A young woman I met this past weekend and one of the young women I mentor are both facing a similar situation as they prepare to complete their university degrees: neither of them knows exactly what she wants to do with her self and her life.

And this is a situation many of our young college graduates face as they prepare for the next phase of their lives—they don’t know what they are supposed to be preparing for.

For me, I went to a reputable institution and got a degree that has top-tier accreditation attached to it. Yet I was not the Golden Child of my class. The one thing I knew with certainty when I graduated from college was that I didn’t want to do what my school was pushing me to do!

I was torn!

And on top of that, I had the expectation that if I put in the work, somebody would offer me a job! As it turned out, I didn’t have a single job offer after coming out of a prestigious institution with Honors! I was utterly confused!

I did what they asked me to do: I played the game, I got the grades they told me I was supposed to get, I had the internships I was supposed to have, I had the “mold-able, good head on my shoulders” like I was supposed to. Why on Earth, did I not have any job offers!?

I’d been duped!

The REALITY was that getting a job was no piece of cake. It took me some time to navigate the waters and figure out some of the things I might possibly want to do. My list of things I didn’t (don’t!) want to do gets longer and longer by the year.

Any of this sound familiar!?

But guess what!?

There is hope!

We are all better at some things than others. Very often we find that it is not what we went to school for. There are various reasons for this and whatever yours is, it’s okay! Going to college doesn’t necessarily speak to the things we are most passionate about!

However, college is a great time of your life to explore some of these things. They may be extracurricular activities like dance or music or politics. Or maybe it’s a class that you enjoyed so much, it prompted you to change your major!

My point is: DO THINGS THAT SPEAK TO YOUR PASSION! Let college remain behind you and be fully present in the Now!

I have a girlfriend who graduated with a degree in Finance! When she got out of college, she got her teaching certificate and taught high school Spanish for a few years stemming from spending a semester abroad in Spain! Now she is in culinary school! None of this has anything to do with her Finance degree. But she is living in the moment. She is flexible enough to decide to change directions and take the steps necessary to do it!

I genuinely admire this about her. But what I love most is her carefree spirit about all the shifts in her Life’s Direction.

This is what I am encouraging you to do: Go, be free. Follow Your Passion!

Don’t worry about what college did or did not teach you. You can learn along the way! Live Your Life To The Fullest, no matter where you are in that Life!

Do You Love Your Life Now!? I Do! (Because I am learning as I go, and it has nothing to do with my degree!)