Slice of Life

What are you going to do after you graduate?

This is a question that is presented to college students constantly, and, it is, for some, an extremely daunting question. Whether it is asked by parents, other extended family members, a girlfriend or boyfriend’s parents, a counselor or simply a friend, it can be a dreaded question to just think about, let alone answer.

A good number of college graduates do not get a career job as soon as they graduate, and an even higher number do not get a career job in their field of study right out of the gates.

So what do they do?

Some have to find a job any way they can as soon as they can because of student loans that need to be paid off. College students all want to get out of school so bad because they have been in school for so long and the cost has them in debt. But once they are out, what is waiting for them besides the debt in student loans they owe? Not much.

There are numerous degrees offered in college, but there do not seem to be the same amount of jobs offered in the real world; especially career jobs in the fields of study a lot of students choose. This fact leads to the overwhelming amount of college graduates who end up working jobs that have nothing to do with their field of study. This is a pretty well known and widely understood fact. Everyone is told at one point or another that most degrees go unused. Unused meaning if one received a degree in biology, they do not become a biologist.

Again the question: What do they do?

Marina Baham, a close friend, who recently graduated from St. Mary’s College with a bachelors in sports management last Spring, is living that question. Notice the question is not what do they “want” to do, because that question can be fantasized and romanticized to no end.

Baham does know what she wants to do in the romanticized sense. She wants to travel. Travel is a verb very commonly used by recent college graduates, usually undergraduates. They want to see the world before settling down into a career or deciding whether or not they want to go back to school and pursue a masters degree.

Baham was fortunate in that she got an internship in her field of study directly out after graduation, and it was in beautiful San Diego. But she was not getting paid and had to support herself. With no luck finding a job in San Diego, she was forced to move in with her brother in Los Angeles, thus, ending the internship. But she did find a job and has free rent. Now all the money she makes can go toward traveling.

Baham is lucky to have a brother who can provide her with free housing, which is allowing her to pursue a life long dream to travel. But after her travels the phrasing of the question changes, but the core will still remain, what do you want to do after you travel?