Why Post Grad Isn’t So Bad Afterall

It’s been exactly 46 days since the saddest day of my life (ahem, UNH graduation). I realize that’s a bit dramatic but at the time, I truly felt the saddest I ever have in a long time. However, I came across so many people who were so thrilled to graduate and “finally be done” that it made me realize just how lucky I am to have had an experience that made letting go so unbearably heartbreaking.

At the time, my plans for the summer consisted of working as an intern part-time in Boston and moving back home with my parents – I wasn’t particularly thrilled. You know how adults have been asking us “what do you want to be when you grow up?” literally every year since the age of 5? Well sometime towards the end of senior year, I realized that the “when you grow up” part of that question, refers to now. I must have blacked out the part of that question that apprarently had a due date attached.

Unfortunately for me, the only thing that interested me that could also qualify as work, was a positon  I had applied for back in March. This internship was with a European student travel company that I had traveled with when I was studying in Italy. The idea to work for them was planted in my head even prior to leaving Florence in spring 2013. Of course, it had always seemed like a great, unattainable fantasy to me, as the company gets many applicants and there had to be hundreds more qualified than I. Fast forward to June: to my absolute delight and surprise, I was offered the invitation to work for this company starting in August of this year. I am so proud, overjoyed, ecstatic, nervous, but most importantly, eternally grateful, to have been granted this opportunity with a company who’s mission & vision is so in line with mine it’s a little frightening.

In August I will be moving to Italy to work as a sales and marketing intern with Bus2Alps and leading students on guided tours to the best European travel destinations (HGAUMER saves you 5% on all bookings with Bus2alps! 😉 )  My underlying point is this: nothing (post grad life) is ever as bad as it seems. Do my Thursday nights still consist of two hours of dollar drinks followed by debauchery with my best friends running around my college town? No. Am I now in bed by 10 pm with a cup of sleepytime tea and a copy of Catcher in the Rye? More often than I’d like to admit… However, I will say that post grad has done my mental and physical well-being a WHOLE LOT of good. One can only split large cheeses with their best friends three nights a week before nothing fits them anymore. Life is a lot more tame now, but I am happily working towards my next big adventure. Stay tuned for details of my European life & if you will be in Europe this fall let me know – I would love to be a resource!