Last year, around this time, I was talking about the traits
of some of the best teachers I had during my undergraduate-graduate studies. The
purpose of that write up was to talk about what I think, it takes to be a great
teacher. Also if the content of the write up helped some of the budding graduate instructors in
their teaching career then that is a success. This write up is a bit different
and here I will give my perceptions about the life after graduation.
I was lucky enough to be among a few of my closest friends
starting from my college days till I graduated with a doctorate degree from UNC
Chapel Hill. So, I have been with those incredibly interesting friends for the
last ten years. In 2014, I had to graduate and leave this circle of friends for good to
pursue different goals in life. Life became tougher as I had expected
before and I had to battle hard to break the barriers of being in a comfy zone and
to go out and interact with unknown people, that too mostly in a professional
environment. Truth be told, while being in Columbus, I thought of leaving the
place number of times and indeed finally succeeded once. So, the question is
why did I leave?
Truth be told, professional life is very different from the
life that we lead as a student. Students more often than not pursue what they
like the most. If that is not true for you, then my suggestion would be to give
a good thought about it, and try to extrapolate where you see yourself in 10 –
15 years. I know it is tough and it does not have to be exact. But it actually
gives you a very rough idea how the future looks like for you. Last year one of
the professionals asked me "What pushes you to come to office every day at 7:30
in the morning ?" Being naïve as I was, replied “It’s a job for me, five days a
week”. He chuckled a bit and replied “Is it only that ?” I did not think about it
much. For me, as long as I was on payroll, life seemed to be good! But in
reality, it ain’t so. So, how do you know
you like what you are doing? Most of the time, we as human beings, tend to
follow a cycle [eat – work – exercise – eat – hangout – eat – sleep, not
necessarily in that order]. And occasionally we travel to new places or take
part in extracurricular activities to rejuvenate ourselves and get charged up
to follow the same old routine again! Well, if you are enjoying your professional life then
that is good. More often than not, in that case, you will like the routine also. But
if not, then the best you can do to yourself is to ask everyday whether you are
thrilled about the work that you will be doing each day. As long as the answer is
yes, you are doing just great in your professional life. Honestly, one roughly
spends 8-10 hours on a daily basis in the professional environment. So, that is
a bit less than 1/3rd of one’s life (under the assumption that, the
person will retire one day from the job). So, it is better to choose wisely what
one wants to do in professional life.
Apart from the professional life it is better to have a
hobby. It could be social work, cooking, gardening, photography, traveling to
new places, reading books, anything that makes one feel engaged in a life outside
the professional world. Most of the professionals will retire from their respective
jobs someday for good, and pursuing a hobby is essential to fill the void. Graduate
life is perhaps the best and also the last part of your student life when you
can pick up any of these hobbies. One does not need to be damn good in any of
that but it should be a kind of a hobby which will
keep one motivated and bring a balance between professional and personal life.
The main aim of this write up is to give a good glimpse of
life after graduation and if this article helps the graduating students in their
professional careers then I will consider this to be a successful write up. Thanks!
