You are basically projecting your shortcomings on the poster blaming her optimism for your cynicism in an attempt to leverage your own position as superior. The irony is of course that this narcissistic behaviour is extremely immature.

You suggest the poster “try living in the real world” when you have no idea what “world” she lives in, your term itself ambiguous and the fact that you bring up what you don’t know and try to pass it off as factual genuine advice just goes to show you are full of BS and will betray logic at the drop of a hat simply to get the satisfaction of pushing someone down and coming off as “right” to those pathetic souls that don’t know any better (of which there are few under you).

Referencing what you said above, “if you aren’t sure take the time out…,” this could be read as taking time “off”, easily interpreted by others as taking time off from work. The majority of people do not have the opportunity to take time off work because they have bills, credit cards payments to pay. Its better in my opinion to fall into any industry (if you are really clueless of what profession you want to do) and get a feel for it. If you are the type of person that is hands on and needs to learn from experience then listening to here say from other people won’t help you figure out the career that’s right for you. Personally, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer but when I immersed myself in the profession I couldn’t have been more wrong. So don’t listen to other people, learn for yourself that’s the only way to know.

If you aren’t sure what you want to do take the time to find out – talk to people doing jobs and find out what a typical day and week is like

I agree you should do what you want and not what people expect of you, but now it has broken down to, “you need to do what you have to to pay down your debt because your lenders expect you to and so does your future credit worthiness.”

Questions:

Can planning coexist with letting go and with “not knowing?” Can we do both, or must we choose one or the other?

Can light-heartedness coexist with getting serious sh** done, or must we be all “business-like” in order to achieve anything?

Do lightheartedness and letting go necessarily equal laziness? I agree that they can, under certain circumstances– but must they?

It meant consolidating all my savings (I worked all through college), buying an old, used wagon, and filling it to the brim with all my “essential” accumulated junk. I took three weeks to see the country on me way out – couchsurfing.org, and spent my money mostly on gas. With one friend in LA, I crashed until I found a cheap (not “good”) apartment on craigslist, month to month, and started looking for anything to get me by. Worst case scenario, I run into my red zone of savings and have to haul it back to Pennsylvania.

California’s got a ridiculously high unemployment rate, 10% sales tax, and a comparatively “high cost of living”. I had no expectations coming out here, I lived in a sh*tty apartment in college, and I still live in one now. I share a bathroom with four people, the dog sleeps on the couch, the washer’s broke, and I sleep on an air mattress, but so what? I’ve certainly had my depressing times (at least the weather is nice), but I don’t think of this as lowering my standards. It’s all about attitude, and one year later I’m no big success working in a grocery store, but I’m no failure, either.

I explain more in my recent blog post: http://pastfive.typepad.com/pastfive/2012/05/advice-for-the-class-of-2012-do-what-you-love.html

Sooooo just get that job and work hard but ALWAYS remember that life > work. You make money to LIVE, and as long as you can pay your rent and feed yourself, you can be living the life you want. A raise is a perk, not a guarantee.

No one has the ‘guts’ to tell students that some of them aren’t ready to go to college after graduating high school. This is why kids in the UK, Europe, and other countries take a ‘gap’ year (or two) to experience life, gain some maturity, and figure out what they want to study before they accumulate a mountain of debt. Just because your parents want you to go to college, it’s better to speak up and say you’re not ready to go. There’s nothing wrong with working first or even working full-time and going to school part-time. In fact, you’ll probably have an advantage (I did) over kids in college. You’ll have ‘real world experience and skills’ that employers want. You’ll network and make connections that can lead to fantastic opportunities now and in the future.

I’m not sure ‘why’ people think college/university automatically means you get a job after graduation. Currently, there are experienced and qualified people out of jobs right now that probably have one or more degrees. I’d encourage kids today to become entrepreneurial and start their own business while they’re young. It can be done, especially if mom and or dad are entrepreneurial. For example, a teen on ABC’s “Shark Tank” is already a millionaire at the age of 15. Why? Because she thought of an idea when she was in elementary school and it took off. She went on “Shark Tank” to get help to expand her business. You see, it can be done.

In general, if you’re not passionate about continuing your education, don’t do it! You’ll waste time and money and more importantly you’ll waste your parents’ money ‘if’ they pay for college. Let’s face it; colleges and universities in America aren’t shutting their doors anytime soon. You can always go to college just like you can always quit your job or don’t even look for one when you graduate from college. Go travel around the world and see for yourself what’s happening. A little culture, perspective, and introspection never hurt anyone. In fact, it could lead to your dream career.

1) You should not free-load and mooch off of parents, family, fand riends and expect them to continue doing so indefinitely

2) If you turn to crime, like dealing drugs, to support your lifestyle, you should be prepared to do the time when you get caught.

“This is great advice for high school graduates and I took some time off myself after graduating high school. Then I picked my career, went to college, graduated 10 years ago and I’m still enjoying my chosen field, probably because I took the time to think about it without thinking about “shoulds””

Good advice and well said– I LOVE THIS! The period after high school is a MUCH more ideal time for soul searching and exploration, after which you’ll be much more likely to know yourself well enough to pick a field and a career path that suits you. (I mention this here: http://www.theunlost.com/work/this-myth-about-finding-your-career-path-is-gone/)

Shrugging off the “shoulds” immediately following high school and waiting to go to college until you’re more clear on things is almost certainly a better way to do it. I better get crackin’ on a high school article!

That said, it’s too late for many of us (myself included), who went to college right after high school because it’s what we thought we were “supposed” to do, but without having a deep understanding of where we wanted to go with it or what we wanted to do with our lives– and then after graduation we find ourselves in a tough spot. Being in this situation certainly makes exploration & other options more difficult, but I still vote for battling shoulditis rather than falling victim to it for the rest of my life

Even though I had a small amount of debt from college and I desperately wanted to move out of my parents’ house, I quit the job I had lined up before graduation (it was an Account Executive job at a marketing firm), packed up my belongings, put everything in storage, and went off around the world. I caught two fish with one worm–moving out of my parents’ house and following my own passions.

Fortunately, I landed a full-time job a few weeks after I returned to the states so I was able to move out and continue to live on my own. Taking that time off had boosted my self-esteem and had given me invaluable skills that were comparatively more important than the ones I would have gained at the marketing firm. All the “shoulds” no longer mattered to me.

Good luck paying off loans..hurray for the lost generation of the great recession!

Sincerely,
Mr. Poverty&Clueless from New York

1) Look at programs that help you make a living while traveling abroad. Peace Corps, Princeton in Africa/Asia/Latin America, Humanity in Action, 100 Projects for Peace, Insight Collaborative Fellowship, Fulbright, Watson Fellowship, Simon Fellowship for a Noble Purpose, JET, are some of those available. There are many more if you contact your university’s fellowship office!

2) Teaching English is often a good paid option and not very difficult to get.

3) Finally you could take a paid job in the U.S. for 1-2 years, save up, and then use your savings to travel for a few months. That’s what I did (am going to Bangladesh & India this summer, in California now using my savings before law school) and one of my friends recently did this to go to Taiwan/China.

4) Tons of job opportunities in the East especially China. I have heard recent grads just go there without a job and almost always find a paid job soon/quickly. I know several people who got jobs easily in China because unemployment is very low and economy is booming. Huge market for those who can speak English there.

Hope this helps!

Yes, you are SO young, and I’m proud of you for deciding to pave your own path! Also, this advice doesn’t just apply to college grads, but I think you already know this

& I’m not sure when we EVER feel like “adults”… did you ever read this post of mine about becoming an “adult,” haha: http://www.theunlost.com/life-in-general/wait…-when-did-i-become-an-“adult”/

I’m not worried about the “negative nellies…” my advice is neither wrong nor right, neither good nor bad, and people are more than entitled to their own opinions. All I know is that I wish someone would have told me this stuff when I graduated, and I know there are many, many more who feel the same way. Reaching these people is all that matters, and I’m not concerned with much else.

The truth is, forging your own path is HARD and it’s not for everyone. Most people would rather make excuses for why it can’t be done. These aren’t the people who I write for, so while their opinions are valid, they aren’t really relevant for me.

Thanks for your awesomeness!

I’m not a college student or a college graduate, so I feel sort of out of place here (I only wanted to read the article because you wrote it). So I can’t really relate to having loans to pay back, etc. But I completely agree with everything you wrote here. When I graduated from high school, I thought I had to have my entire life mapped out. I thought I had to immediately jump into the real world, suck it up, and be all professional and serious. I wish I had discovered your website and your articles THEN. Probably would’ve saved me from being depressed all the time.

“You have the rest of your life to be serious.”

It’s true. Even though I feel older than dirt sometimes, I’m only 20. I have my whole life ahead of me. I don’t want to waste my youth living up to societal expectations. I don’t even completely know how to be an adult yet. I feel like a 10 year old trapped in a 20 year old’s body.

I’m just glad that I decided at a young age that I was going to pave my own path. I’m still working on it.

This is good advice. These negative nellies probably just don’t realize it yet. But then again, what do I know? I’m not in college. ;P

If someone had told me that I could EXPECT failure and floundering and falling off course – well, honestly, I would’ve hated it and thought, “Not ME, I’m doing everything right.” But maybe down the road when things didn’t turn out according to plan, I wouldn’t have taken it as a personal failure.

And for sure, for sure, there is forever to work-work-work and be serious.

Also, if you don’t have it all figured out, this doesn’t mean that you aimlessly wander around or sit around doing nothing all day. Is it possible to “not have it all figured out” while simultaneously job searching, working, and/or planning for and working toward solutions? Ask yourself this question…

Good question :). For most people, it’s not an option to immediately drop everything, take off and travel the world. Thought, planning, and time are often involved. I explore ways to do this on my site and in my guide.

You do have to do what you have to do, and again, I’m not advocating irresponsibility (see my comment above). This article isn’t about traveling, per se– that’s only one of a myriad of options (that said, there ARE ways to travel AND to make money at the same time if you’re resourceful and if that’s what you want to do).

If you want something bad enough, you’ll figure out how to make it work (even if this takes some time and some planning, which it often does).

If you don’t want it bad enough, then you won’t, and that’s ok, too.

Agreed; a concrete plan is necessary. I’m not advocating being irresponsible– I’m simply suggesting that there ARE alternatives. If you need to work a “real person job” for awhile to finance travels you’d like to take, then so be it. Not everyone should take the path I took– those were my own decisions and I made them in light of my own particular situations.

That said, this article IS overly simplistic– there’s only so much that can be said in one short piece. Moreover, there’s no “cookie cutter” solution; new graduates have to use their God-given intelligence to come up with a solution that will work best for THEM, whatever that may be. If you’re willing to think outside the box and take initiative, you’ll be amazed at the myriad of opportunities that can be created.

Most people are too busy making up excuses to think about the alternatives (comments on this article are a case-in-point), and that’s fine– it’s the ones who don’t who will actually use their brains, take initiative and make something happen

I don’t think Therese was saying everyone should travel — and I don’t think she’s assuming everyone is in a position to do that. Her point seems to be that you should pursue your own path and not do things because you think you should. So maybe you’ve taken one job purely for the money — to pay off your student debt faster. I think this piece asks us to consider other options. Maybe take a slightly lower paying job that you think you’d enjoy more. There are lots of possibilities when you don’t restrict yourself to things you think are expected of you.