The Summer of Reid

How this blog was conceived:

Two weeks ago, on Saturday, May 11, 2013, I "graduated" from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I, along with thousands of other newly minted, sublimely happy college graduates sat through 3.5 hours of pomp and circumstance, walked across the stage and out into the bright sunlight of the nearby practice football field and the uncertain future. 

Having a college degree is not what it was 10 years ago--a topic that has been discussed endlessly since the Great Recession. Not only are more people getting advanced degrees than ever before, but the white collar job market has shrunk, making it more competitive for US citizens with undergraduate degrees. There are only two options: go on to graduate school or canvas the town with your resume.

I graduated from high school in 2007 right before the economy took a nosedive (yes, it took me 6 years to graduate with my undergraduate degree). Class of 2007 graduates are in the unique position of having left for college amid the apex of the economy when it was all but guaranteed that in 4 years there'd be a fulfilling, adult job waiting for us with a good starting salary and generous benefits. But then the economy tanked in 2008, houses were foreclosed, people lost their jobs, savings, pensions and retirement benefits. Unemployment soared, banks and car companies went under and then were bailed out and CEOs were nearly stoned. 

I had gone away for my first year of college, to a small private school in upstate New York called Colgate University. My early ambitions were to do the whole "pre-med thing," but as a writer for the Colgate Maroon-News (the oldest college weekly in the US, might I add), I secretly wished to major in Journalism or English. Despite the super fun nights I had at Colgate, it wasn't meant to be and I ended up transferring to the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2008. It was a bad year, personally and worldwide, apparently. 

Fast forward three-ish years. I transferred home as a BA Biology major, but I couldn't get it up for the supplemental sciences like Physics and Chemistry. (I loved Biology, Zoology, Microbiology and Anatomy & Physiology but hated Physics and Chemistry. PHYS and CHEM are the devil, and I'm still clueless as to what they have to do with BIOL). I actually really like science on the whole. It's factual and systematic and not subjective. In the Spring of 2011 I decided to switch to Economics because, unlike other social sciences, it isn't a fluff major and it has practical applications (including many job opportunities). What I love most about Economics is that it's a lot of other topics (i.e. Philosophy, Psychology, Math, Political Science, etc.) combined and presented in objective terms. 

I digress. Anyway, in the months leading up to graduation, I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with my life. Everyone kept asking me what I planned to do after graduation. I didn't have a "real job" lined up, partially because I've been too lazy to start sending out my resume and because I'm totally clueless as to what kinds of jobs I'd like to do. I knew I wasn't quite ready to commit to a couple more years of graduate school after 6 years getting my undergrad degree. All I knew was that something had died inside me. I used to be hyper competitive in everything I participated in, whether it was in class, tennis, school clubs or part-time jobs I've held. I always wanted to be more than competent, I wanted to be at the top and in charge. Somewhere along the way, I got more and more apathetic about everything. Maybe I hit the metaphorical "cruise control" button and didn't remember to press the metaphorical gas when I should have, or maybe taking so long to graduate and changing my major was a subconscious blow to my non-metaphorical confidence. Recently, I feel like I've fallen behind so, rather than allow myself to be overwhelmed, I'm stepping out of the deluge of internal and external expectations and pressure. Instead, I'm going to make this the summer of Reid. 

If there's one thing I learned from taking all those multiple choice tests over the years, it's that, sometimes the best answer is "None of the above." Rather than apply for random real jobs I probably won't care for and know nothing about, or applying for a graduate program I only half-heartedly commit to, I'm opting out and writing a blog instead.