Blogging Goodbye to Butterflies

Tag: job hunt

  • Feeling like a graduate who’s failing at life

    This week:

    • Dave and I booked a spontaneous trip to the cinema.
    • I face-swapped with a minion.
    • An amazing friend who obviously knows the way to my heart, cooked me a Mexican dinner: She made her guacamole from scratch. Doesn’t get much better than that.  
    • I almost gave up on Plan A, get a job in a primary school, all together.

    I’ve actually been feeling pretty down in the dumps about the latter. Somehow, I had managed to convince myself that every day spent as a graduate out of work was a waste of life. I’d spent a month and a half waiting for the right job to come along and felt like a failure already.

    It took my dad pointing out that a month and a half is no time at all to be searching for a job in a whole new industry, for me to come to my senses.

    I feel calmer now and more resolved than ever. I know that whatever path I take in the future, I need to do this first. There’s no skipping ahead or changing my mind: Getting into a classroom, getting some experience and finding out whether teaching is for me is exactly what I need to do. Until I know just how much I’m going to love it, I can’t possibly decide what on earth to do next. I can’t give up just yet.

    I now feel like a complete wally for nearly giving up so quickly, for thinking I should have everything figured out already and for forgetting who I am. After all, I’m the girl who has always truly believed time isn’t wasted if you enjoyed wasting it.

  • Navigating life after university: Step one, find a job

    It’s Sunday again. The whole house smells of roast beef and I can’t stop smiling. Sundays are my favourite thing.

    Last week was a tough one – my anxiety was a little harder to deal with than usual and I was feeling a bit lost, alone and confused.

    But this week I’ve had a Cadbury creme egg with breakfast almost every day. It doesn’t get much better than that hey?

    I didn’t wake up until eleven on Monday morning. It’s been what feels like an eternity since I slept in that long and I felt SO good for it.  I jumped out of bed and headed downstairs to find that my grandparents, who’d been over for Easter Sunday, had stuck around. We had lunch while listening to Heart FM, who claimed to be playing the 100 happiest songs of all time.

    That night I met a few friends for dinner. I had Bruschetta, BBQ Chicken Quesadillas AND a side of fries and discovered my eyes were most definitely bigger than my belly. We headed for cocktails afterwards, simply because none of us were ready for the night to end when we left the restaurant.

    Tuesday, we went bowling. I was the only one in velcro shoes, as per, and I ordered a slush puppy for old time’s sake. I got a couple of strikes, but I didn’t do as well as I wanted to. I very nearly beat one of the guys in a game of pool afterwards though.

    Wednesday, I caught up with a friend I hadn’t seen in literally years. I had a singing lesson that evening and surprisingly, considering I really didn’t sing that well, I came away from it feeling like conquering life.

    One of my bestest friends (also a recent graduate) and I made it our mission to get fit this year. We joined a fitness class in January and much to my surprise, we didn’t drop out after the first couple of weeks! Our instructor’s been amazing and, much to our dismay, she’s upping and moving to Spain. Wednesday night we went along to her leaving dinner. I ordered fish and chips when I definitely should have ordered the lasagna. That aside, we had a great evening. Here’s hoping whoever takes over is as good at kicking us into action as she was.

    I met two lovely ladies for lunch on Thursday. The sun was out, and I wore my sunglasses and that made me ridiculously happy.

    That afternoon I had a job interview. Yep, that’s right, a job interview! It isn’t lost on me how lucky I am to be back living with parents as a graduate and to have time to find the job that feels right for me.

    The interview went really well and I’m hoping I’ll hear from them very soon. I’m venturing into the world of Primary School education. For a while I’ve been considering a PGCE, with a music specialism. I spend so much time ranting and raving about how the education system is going down hill, how I’d love to inspire and encourage the next generation and how teachers are the most amazing people on the planet, that I figure I really should step up and at least try it. I’m applying for Teaching Assistant positions, planning to get some experience first of all.

    This week has been conclusively better than last week. Sometimes, it takes hitting a bit of a low to get you moving. How can you pick yourself up if you’re already on a high?

    My mum just called to say roast dinner’s ready, bang on cue. Onwards and upwards from here.