So I graduated in May without a job (which is why you see mestill gracing the pages of The Helmsman), and I had actuallysettled into the fact that I was one of thousands who graduateunemployed or, in my case, underemployed, considering I wasdelivering pizza.
I thought having a few months to relax would be a good breakfrom the hard four years I had just put in at good ole U of M. Ofcourse, as soon as I decided to like the fact that I didn't have ajob evenly remotely related to my field of study, one poppedup.
Since the second week in May, I've been working about 40 hours aweek in the communications office at a big city employer. At firstit was good, but then I realized how much I missed school life.There are so many things about being in school that you miss onceyou don't have to put up with the rest of the everyday stuff. Forinstance:
Naps in the middle of the afternoon. Granted, they were prettyrare, and when I did take them, it was because I had fallen asleeptrying to study, but boy, they were still great.
Now it's really hard to squeeze in a nap, which I think shouldbe a national custom, like the Mexican siesta. I get an hour for alunch break, and sometimes I do fall asleep for part of that, butit's just not the same.
Vacations for no reason, like summer break, winter break, fallbreak, spring break. Oh summer vacation, how I miss you. I hearpeople all around me complaining about how their summer break is soboring or they have to work the whole time, and it makes me somad.
We poor unfortunate souls who have already entered thepost-graduation "real world" will never have the blessing of asummer break again, teachers excluded.
And winter vacation? Give me a break (pun intended)! Part of thewhole appeal of Christmas is the fact that you get to curl up inflannel PJs while it's cold outside for two weeks before and twoweeks after the holiday. But at most jobs, you're lucky to get anytime at all off, let alone more than just Christmas itself.
I also miss insurance. I don't have benefits at my job yet, butI didn't think it'd be a problem because I never get sick. Well,that was a pre-graduation myth, because Stephanie Myers, U of Malumna, does get sick -- all the time.
Within the first month of being out of school, I had a week-longstomach ache, toothaches, my vision got all splotchy, and Ideveloped a tumor. Granted, I am a hypochondriac, but I know thosewere real problems, maybe not the tumor. That might have been a bigmosquito bite.
There are a lot of things to miss about being in school. I thinkit's just weird to not be doing the one thing you've been doing for17 years. You get into such a habit, and no matter how much of apain school is, it's always there, and that's sort ofcomforting.
But it's also comforting knowing that eventually school will beover. Work, on the other hand, just isn't comforting. Sure, you'regetting paid, but you're getting paid to sit in the same place foreight hours a day, 40 hours a week, 2,080 hours a year, for, ifyou're lucky, 43 years.
The stability is still there, but it's not a comfortingstability. It's a please-kill-me-because-I-can't-stand-thisoffice-any more stability.
Maybe I'll get used to the work-a-day world. Or maybe I'll juststart taking naps in the middle of the day and taking weeks off ata time for random vacations and eventually get fired. Either way, Iguess I don't have homework to put up with, and that's aconsolation.
