True Life of a 2008 Grad: Part I

May 20, 2008 was graduation day. The search started long before then, yet the finality of my college life and the inevitability of the future became all too real that day. I recall pulling my sleep-deprived and weary-self into my driveway days later, with my life as I had known it crammed into my car. I was about to unpack and embark on a journey of a magnitude I had never encountered before: a job search as a 2008 graduate.

I didn’t believe my dad at the time when he told me that any thorough job search would take at least three months, if not six, or more. I dismissed his stated timeframe as outdated and old fashioned. It seemed accurate for before the age of the Internet, and true for a person of his work experience, but certainly not mine. I was young; a fresh college graduate; an economics and Spanish major from a reputable University who was sure that I was going to have trouble, yes trouble, deciding which offer to accept. Ha. If only I knew then what I know now…but I suppose I am not alone in that notion. His words have remained in my mind until weeks ago, when I landed a fulltime freelance position.

Yet the path I took to get that freelance position – that now highly coveted, hourly paying, benefit-less freelance position that I was competing against a swarm of applicants to get, I never could have imagined.

I hope you follow me as I take a look back on the last six, yes six months; good prediction, dad.