Person: What’s
your major?
Me: Creative
writing.
Person: That’s
cool! What are you going to do with that?
Me: I don’t know.
This is how the average conversation about my college career
goes. When I say that I don’t know what I plan to do with my degree, people
usually laugh uncomfortably as if they think I’m joking. The thing is, I’m not.
I honestly have no idea what I’m going to do once I graduate college. That’s
really scary.
I have big dream, which I’ve never told anyone before, so you heard it here first. I want to move to
Austin, Texas because, though I’ve only been there once, I absolutely love that
city with all my heart. I found myself very at home there. In order to pay the
rent, I would get a job at an Alamo, just so I’m in a familiar environment and
doing something I already know and am good at. Then I would start looking into
jobs at publishing companies, newspapers, and other things within my field of
study. I realize that Austin is a long ways away from my friends and family,
but I honestly think I could do it. I’m a very independent person, and I can
handle being alone for long periods of time. Plus, moving to a city where I
know no one will force me to finally break out of my shell and try new things
in order to meet people and expand my horizons. Besides, I probably won’t live
there for that long; I’ve always envisioned my kids being raised in Nebraska. So
that’s my big dream.
Realistically, I’ll probably continue to work a basic,
minimum wage job, maybe get an internship with the Omaha World Herald if I can.
I don’t really like journalistic writing that much, but I’m good at it, so why
not. Since I’ll have time, I’ll write more poetry and work on one of the
billions of stories I’ve started but never had time to finish over the years. Maybe
I’ll finally get my inspiration for my first novel. I kind of want to be in
charge of social media or web content or something at a company, but I’m not
really sure how to get into that or if it’s even a real job. I just know it’s
something I like and am good at.
I used to think of “after college” and “when I graduate” as
something far away in the future. But if I stay on track with my classes, that
could be a year and a half from now. That’s not just really scary, that’s
terrifying. But it’s also really exciting. I’ll be starting a new chapter of my
life, one that doesn’t involve staying up until 2am writing a paper that I
should have done earlier but didn’t because I decided to play video games or
watch YouTube videos instead. While the future scares me a lot, I also can’t
wait to see what’s in store for me next.
