Since graduating in May of 2011 I have been struggling with getting out of student mode and into the professional world. I’ve even been as tempted as to enroll for a second bachelors degree, however, the threat of a mountain of debt is making me reconsider. If someone would have told me that I would be just as clueless now as I was when I entered college–I probably wouldn’t have allowed my family to pressure me into pursuing my bachelors when I did. Realistically though, I wouldn’t change any of it. It’s just that the economy and my lack of preparation is making it beyond balls difficult to find employment. I worked a retail job over the holidays but wasn’t allowed to stay on full-time because the store couldn’t afford to keep on any seasonal employees. I seem to be stuck between making money, making art, and not making myself useful these days.

I want to be freed from limbo.

I’m quite tired of feeling like I wasted the last four years of my life getting a degree. I’m over wondering what may have happened had I gone to another university. I don’t want to consider the fact that there may have been another major that I could have studied. Is it too much to ask to find stable employment in my field? I suppose it’s not when I remember:  ’that nothing worth having comes easy.’

All that said,  this weekend is going to be dedicated to getting my life–okay, my portfolio– together. I will sift through my external hard drives and put together all of my work the best way I know how. I will set aside as much money as possible, and it’s not much, to have business cards and other promotional materials printed. I will pretend that I have a heavily weighted assignment due at 8 am Monday so that I may free myself from the bounds of this crappy recent graduate limbo

and get a job.

If you’re a recent graduate, what are you doing or what have you done to get out of limbo?

edit: I picked up this book from a thrift shop. I hope it has some useful tips.