Feeling lost after graduation. When life gets confusing and what I am doing about it
Have you just finished high school, or recently graduated from college?
And are people already expecting you to have everything figured out?
I am in that same position.
I dropped out of university and decided to create my own path.
I decided to go another way and I have heard so much criticism and “great advice” to play it safe. I know where you are, I know how you feel.
We all get tossed into this world where there are endless opportunities and jobs to do. But at the same time, it seems that our parents were working all the time and are not happy with their lives.
We are trying to make sense of all of this.
Should we just go ahead and get a job. Just to earn money and create our happiness another way? Through a family, success in that job, a nice car, a nice house, and great vacations?
Or do we need something more? Some meaning in all of this? A calling?
Is the 9-to-5 even for us?
If you are not a top graduate from one of the top schools. chances are you will never enter the reigns of the rich and famous.
And living a middle-class life does not seem worth it to me.
So what can we do?
We are no top graduates and no descendants of the ultra-rich.
All we can do is go out looking for ways to be successful.
Ways to make it on our own, to be different.
But there is no laid out path.
That is a road you have to find and create yourself and that is really scary and if that isn’t enough, people will try to keep you from succeeding, because they do not want to see that it is possible.
They want everyone to live the life that they are living.
They gave up on their dreams and can’t bear the thought of seeing you fulfilling yours.
In this article, I want to give you my opinion on life and why I think you should go all in. Why I think you should ask for more and not settle for what everyone else has.
I want to tell you why I will not settle for less.
This life sometimes is just f***ed up…
I know it sounds harsh, but it is like being forced to play speed chess and not being allowed to think about what move you really want to do next.
I mean I saw my parents work all the time for the better part of my life and not being fulfilled. Still worrying about money or what would happen if, God forbid, they were to lose their jobs.
That is just not something that I want to experience my entire life!
But as soon as we graduate high school or college, for that matter, everyone wants us to just jump right into the next thing.
And the only thing that will lead to is a reactive life where everything else has control over us. But I want to be the one in control. I want to be able to steer.
We all have seen what having a normal job looks like, at least most of us.
It then dawns on us, that life maybe isn’t as exciting as we thought it would be.
We are thinking, that maybe life is just this:
Getting up early, going to work, coming back home, eating dinner, watching Netflix, maybe getting lucky with your partner and then repeat.
Oh and one or two vacations a year, where it ends as soon as we finally start to relax and feel the stress falling off of us.
But we all feel like there is more and to try and find the answer in this paradox just makes you feel incredibly small and helpless.
I know that life at this point is just really scary and confusing.
We barely understand ourselves, let alone this world and our role in it, but still, everyone expects us to just do as everyone does, pick a job and then be done with it.
What if we don’t want that. Or at least not right away.
Well then everyone will think you are stupid, or lazy.
But if we look at our world, the old way did not get us very far.
Maybe things need to change. Maybe each of us finding their unique calling is exactly what we as a society need.
And even if all that is wrong, don’t you want your ONE life on this planet to be something more. Something worth remembering?
If you do, I encourage you to go out and find yourselves.
I am doing it right now.
I left the 9-to-5, heck, I dropped out of university and I am doing things on my own.
I do not care about normal life.
I will create my own life. My own story.
And I am already enjoying it so much more than any day before that, where I haven’t made that choice yet.
I am still struggling. I still haven’t found my true calling, or at least I am not sure.
I have little money, but everything is starting to change. I got my first writing gigs and I am writing on here and you guys are reading that.
That is quite something. I love it.
And I finally feel free. Like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I was paralyzed and now I can finally walk.
I was an eagle with broken wings and now I can fly.
I hope that you all get to experience that as well.
I want to experience life, not just see it pass by.
I want to experience life, not just my workplace, my home and the occasional holiday to the same place over and over again.
I want to create something that will last.
I want to leave my mark on this planet and help to save and protect it for future generations to come.
I want people to know who I really am.
I am sick of being fake. On Social Media, on Job applications and in life in general.
Yes, I had a psychosis, depression and I did drugs. I have been a drunk and I did stupid sh**, but I am a human being capable of learning and becoming a better person over time.
I have a unique value to offer and so do you, but for most people what matters is what your CV has to say about you.
No personality, just words on a piece of paper.
That is not me.
I am more.
Sure on paper, it may not look like much, but what is in my heart lasts for several lifetimes. And those are the values that I care about.
Those are the ones that I look for in other people and I wish that more of society would consider them.
Let us be human. Let us make mistakes.
Today there is less value on experiences and life lessons. No one appreciates the journey anymore. Only the end.
Everyone sees the nice car, the house.
Sees you having a job you go to every day.
It might make you miserable, BUT you have one. GOOD FOR YOU!
Or they see you try different things, traveling and trying out different jobs and all they see is nonlinear behavior that somehow makes you less valuable to the market place.
Well, I do not care about the marketplace if it wants me to stop living and being a human. If it wants to blame me for making mistakes, stupid choices and living my life, then I do not want to be part of it.
I want us all to live the life that we dream of.
I know that you are valuable and I wish I could get to know every one of you because you carry inside something so special. Experiences, that only you have. Words and pictures, that only you can paint.
Give yourself time to find your voice. To find your calling. To find the way that you can use your unique value to help others and make a living from that.
I am certain that we would all be better off if we gave ourselves permission to try out different things and to be human, to make mistakes, make horrible choices.
Do all of that! Live and tell that story!
I am certainly looking forward to hearing it.
In conclusion
This young generation is full of potential and I know how it feels to struggle with finding yourself, finding your voice and calling in this fast world of memes and Instagram Stories.
I know that people expect us to just do the right thing, get a job and play house for the rest of our lives.
But if we feel differently about it, or if we want to find ourselves first, everyone sees you as being lazy.
But I am encouraging you all to go out and explore the world, and yourselves.
Find your voice and then you will be of a much higher value to this world. Maybe not to a company, but you will be able to give value and earn a living from that.
I am looking forward to hearing and reading about your journey.
I hope you like this article.
Feel free to clap and comment and get in touch.
Love, Heiko.
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