A Frustrated College Senior

The majority of my conversations have gone like this, because I have no idea what I want to do after I graduate college. I know you’re wondering why but for my first post I want to introduce myself and this idea, when you do what you are made to do then living becomes more enjoyable and life becomes easier.

For the past few month’s I’ve been frustrated with the passing time and my lack of confidence in choosing a professional career but I choose writing as an outlet for that frustration and a tool for reflection and exploration. I’m currently in the last 6 months of my undergraduate education at the University of Washington. What is normally a slow and exciting time for upcoming graduates has become an anxious and scary moment for me.

Throughout the entirety of my college career I have been focused on finishing college. College is so expensive that students, like myself, find themselves rushing towards their graduation in an attempt to save as much money as possible. On my graduation June 2017, I would have spent only 3 years in college. Cutting a year out of my education has allowed my to save thousands of dollars but it has also caused me to loose a year of valuable college experiences. Students, like myself, don’t have time to get involved in clubs on campus. Nor do they have time to take advantage of the hundreds of resources that they’re paying for in their tuition because most of today’s college students spend many hours working, sometimes working several part time jobs, in order to collect enough money to afford to go to their classes.

It frustrates me that once upon a time students could work full time during the summer to easily collect enough money to focus all of their attention on their classes during the rest of the year. But with university tuition rates being about $4,000 for resident students on my campus a student would have to make at least $22 and work forty hours a week throughout a 14 week summer break in order to make enough money to pay for tuition alone. This wouldn’t event include books, supplies, food, housing and other costs. International students would have to earn about $60 an hour under the same circumstances. The problem is many students are not able to find full time jobs, especially with such high salaries which puts us in a catch twenty two.

Our economy has made it impossible for the vast majority of people in the United Stated to attend college. And for those who are able to attend college, a huge population of those students find themselves struggling financially to make the most out of the experience.

Because of these circumstances, I don’t have an additional year to explore my passions, expand on my education and research career paths. All I have is the knowledge that I’ve collected thus far. All of this frustration surrounding graduation and what career path I may choose makes me think about a simpler time, my childhood.

When I was younger there was one thing that I loved doing, writing. I would write narratives, fiction and I had a daily journal. In my eighth grade class I had to write a paper about what I wanted to do when I was older and although I did not know at all what I wanted to be (exactly how I am now) I wrote about how much I love to write and how any career I do for the rest of my life would have to involve writing.

With this upcoming new year I want to renew this passion by writing as much as I can throughout the last of my undergraduate education. Counting down the days until graduation, recording my transition from college life into a professional career or whatever else may lay ahead.