So I graduated. This time last year, I thought there would more hoopla and celebration, and some marvelous bursts of insight upon receiving a Master's degree. But what seems to have happened is more like excitement mixed with fear, mixed with a shrug that says, "Onto the next." Maybe it's because I don't receive my degree until after I finish covering the Spoleto Festival for the Charleston "Post and Courier" so there's no elation that you would usual expect would come after you get a Master's degree. Maybe it's because I haven't had time to bask in that graduation afterglow. Right before graduation, I was on a Canadian road trip with my parents and after, I was in New York City looking for an apartment.
I found a place in two days (How? Craigslist and a good pair of walking shoes). I signed a lease a week after graduation for a two-bedroom apartment. Here is a tip about apartment-hunting in New York, it's usually apropos to look for an apartment two weeks before you plan to move in. Anytime before then is too soon and no one will rent to you.
I had a job interview, which I am still waiting to hear back from.
Then I headed off to Charleston a week and one day after graduation for Spoleto. The work continues indefinitely.
Someone I knew asked me, "How does it feel to get a Master's degree?" My answer, "It hasn't hit me yet." So ask me again in two weeks. For now, it's as it's always been.
Though I'm beginning to get a clearer picture of life after graduation. So perhaps the answer is, it's both satisfying but unsettling. But that's real life, no grand epiphanies. If anything, it's more questions.
Congrats, Diep!
ReplyDelete"Maybe it's because I haven't had time to bask in that graduation afterglow. Right before graduation, I was on a Canadian road trip with my parents and after, I was in New York City looking for an apartment."
ReplyDeleteIt might actually be better that you haven't had time to bask in the afterglow. It was after I started to bask in the afterglow that the afterglow faded and left me feeling ever so slightly panic-stricken. The degree was done, over. What next? Obviously, I had my graduate jobs hunt to concentrate on but most of that was spent dreaming up images of what might happen to me if I never found a job.
I never went as far as a Masters, just my BA but I don't think many people get a sudden burst of insight on receiving their degree. It isn't the physical action of holding it in your hand that changes your life. It'll be everything that led up to that moment that could change your life if you want it to. I think that takes a lot of graduates by surprise (it certainly did me) and that's why panic sets in.
Anyway, I'm just rambling now. :)