These last few week have been very up and down. One minute I'm on cloud nine and the next I'm contemplating my whole life. That's because I officially graduated for my university. I know that's a greeeeaaat accomplishment but it's also terrifying. I'm tossed into the real world now - the first thing my mom said after one of my ceremonies was "now you're going to know what it's like to work". My mom WOULD be the one to say that but let me not talk about the struggle lol. I've been so pumped to graduate cause I'M A FIRST GENERATION GRADUATE and I kinda feel like a boss ass bih cause I'm the youngest in my complete family (literally - within my cousins, I'm the baby) to have a degree. It feels great to be start that trend and hopefully my cousin's kids do the same. It's also great cause I broke the stereotype - I'm an educated Latina woman. That has such a nice tune to it. My people have been put on such a difficult and disheartening position where we're seen as criminals (just look at what some politicians have to say) and I'm proud to represent them in another manner. And I hope that every first generation student gets the opportunity I had. We all kinda have a similar story where our parents migrated to this country for a better future, not only for them but for their kids. My parents worked their asses off to give me the chance to pursue a higher education and I can never pay them back for all they've given me. It's safe to say my degree is basically shared with two other people.
I really don't know where I'm going with this post to be honest lol but I just wanted to share words that I've received these past few days that can be helpful to my fellow grads or just anyone. I have always been a person who got everything I wanted at a certain time and I mean that in the least obnoxious way possible too. I checked off everything on my "To-Do" list while in school but my life is starting to slow down a bit. By that I mean getting a big girl job. One thing my internship director preached about on our last day together was to have patience, something I sure thought I had. I didn't major in STEM, something where students are guaranteed bomb ass jobs and great moola so I knew there was gonna be some setbacks after I graduated. This month, I've been learning to trust the timing of my life and to not go into panic mode (which tends to happens often even though it might not look like it). Being in the real world is hard and it sucks - those are the exact words from my internship director and if you haven't heard that yet, you betta recognize. With persistence, like Obama said, and patience anything is possible.
Now to another thing I want to share; one thing that really messed me up earlier this semester was comparing myself to others. At one ceremony I was at, one of colleagues said he got a job already at Johnson & Johnson. At that moment, I thought I was slackin' big time - I was so hard on myself after hearing that like wow, this guy got his life set. You really can't define other's people success to what success is to you cause trust me, I'm someone who doesn't have the typical ideology that society perceives of what success to be. (Wow, that was a lot of "success" in that sentence). When people ask me my five year plan, it's so hard cause I'm just tryna be happy with my life. That's so cliche but I genuinely mean it. If you don't have one then let it be! There are too many loopholes that will happen in the long run and when life doesn't go as planned, there's a high chance you will think you suck and no one should ever think. I think there's a difference in setting goals and seeing your life in five years. But if you do have one, go you! Lol I'm not discouraging anything but no person should be obligated to feel like they have their life set in stone and they definitely shouldn't be looked down upon.
I can keep going but I'm just gonna wrap this up before it gets too long lol and I know, why is someone who JUST graduated two seconds again tryna preach to the choir? I'm just sharing what I've been experiencing and hopefully it helps you out. It truly all comes down to doing what you love and loving what you do. If whatever you wanna do doesn't exist, make it exist. We live in a day and age where anyone can be an entrepreneur, look at the technology all around us. And don't let anyone tell you what you can and can't do in life - in the simplest terms, tell them to fuck off.
