Inventory
# of weeks worked in Japan: 6
# of months minimum before I might get paid for it: 6
current bank account balance, savings and checking combined: $282
total student loan debt: a gazillion dollars
# of sporadic-hour retail jobs currently working: 2
# of retail jobs I hoped to be working ever, post-graduation: 0
# of breakups in the last month: 1
# of friends and family who seem to have their lives in excellent order: nearly all
So, to translate: I'm back home with no full-time job, no independence, no boyfriend, no social life and no money. And I kind of miss Japan, which I fully expected to happen, and I still don't look on my experience there as a bad thing. It's just the whole using all my savings to get there, working, and never getting paid thing that was a tiny bit wretched. It honestly didn't seem so bad when I was there with a bunch of people in the same boat. Now I'm here in the U.S., all I can think is that I spread my wings after college and smacked right into a plate-glass window. It's going to take a little while for those pinion feathers to grow back.
I'm lucky, of course: I do have a place to live, an understanding family (with whom I can live in decent harmony), a good friend who gave me loads of holiday hours at the bookstore where I used to work, and a deferral application in the works.
It's just a little difficult to remember this at Thanksgiving with my cousin who's my age and is rapidly climbing the corporate ladder at a rate of I think $50,000 a year. It would be so nice to have a full-time, lucrative job, an apartment, friends I could actually see on a regular basis. But part of me feels a little defiant, too. I tried something different from standard corporate, and it didn't work out--and no matter how much I feel like a failure, it wasn't actually my fault. And let's be honest...money or no, I don't want that job. I don't know what I want to do, but I really have no ambition to climb the corporate ladder.
So there I am, folks. Dare you to call me pathetic.
# of months minimum before I might get paid for it: 6
current bank account balance, savings and checking combined: $282
total student loan debt: a gazillion dollars
# of sporadic-hour retail jobs currently working: 2
# of retail jobs I hoped to be working ever, post-graduation: 0
# of breakups in the last month: 1
# of friends and family who seem to have their lives in excellent order: nearly all
So, to translate: I'm back home with no full-time job, no independence, no boyfriend, no social life and no money. And I kind of miss Japan, which I fully expected to happen, and I still don't look on my experience there as a bad thing. It's just the whole using all my savings to get there, working, and never getting paid thing that was a tiny bit wretched. It honestly didn't seem so bad when I was there with a bunch of people in the same boat. Now I'm here in the U.S., all I can think is that I spread my wings after college and smacked right into a plate-glass window. It's going to take a little while for those pinion feathers to grow back.
I'm lucky, of course: I do have a place to live, an understanding family (with whom I can live in decent harmony), a good friend who gave me loads of holiday hours at the bookstore where I used to work, and a deferral application in the works.
It's just a little difficult to remember this at Thanksgiving with my cousin who's my age and is rapidly climbing the corporate ladder at a rate of I think $50,000 a year. It would be so nice to have a full-time, lucrative job, an apartment, friends I could actually see on a regular basis. But part of me feels a little defiant, too. I tried something different from standard corporate, and it didn't work out--and no matter how much I feel like a failure, it wasn't actually my fault. And let's be honest...money or no, I don't want that job. I don't know what I want to do, but I really have no ambition to climb the corporate ladder.
So there I am, folks. Dare you to call me pathetic.