So What Are You Going To Do After You Graduate?: That Damn Question

Seniors, we are graduating 100 days from today. And for the next 100 of those days, we will continue to hear one question.

So what are you going to do after you graduate?

Or one of its many variants like:

“What are your plans after graduation?”

“Do you know what you’re going to do yet?”

“Do you have a job?”

It comes from all directions – from friends, professors, your mother’s friends, co-workers, the cashier at Dunkin Donuts that you got to know pretty well this semester – and you can usually tell when it’s coming.  Upon hearing that you’re a senior, he/she will say something along the lines of, “Oh wow, you must be excited. Do you know what you’re doing yet?”

A helpful chart of likely post-graduation plans | Heather Vandenengel

While there are people who can answer this question confidently, who have a job, an acceptance to graduate school, or some semblance of a plan, I know many more who have no clue. For us, answering this question is a frequent reminder of our uncertain future in a shaky job market.

“If one other person asks me what I’m doing when I graduate I might get expelled for employing violence against them,” said one of my friends when I told her I was writing this blog.

Why do we hate this question so much? Because we don’t know what we’re doing and that’s scary as hell.

One hundred days from now, I don’t know where I will be living, where I will be working, what kind of work I will be doing, whether I will have a place to live or if I will be able to pay the rent if I do have somewhere to live. I don’t know if I will be happy or if my four years of very expensive schooling will have prepared me for that mythical place known as “the real world.”

Is this pervasive uncertainty actually the “dawning of a new life stage” as the New York Times Magazine reported? Or are we just kids who haven’t got around to figuring out what we want to do yet?

While talking to my friends about what we’re going to do after graduation, the conversation fluctuates between fear and excitement, and I think it’s time to start embracing the latter. When else are we going to have this much freedom to do anything – to move across the country, across the world, to meet interesting people, to recklessly pursue whatever it is you want to do?  I’m sure we will crash and burn more than a few times, but it’s better than festering in fear.

So the next time That Damn Question comes up, which it undoubtedly will once a day for the next 100 days, I’m going with, “I DON’T KNOW. But I can’t wait to find out.”

Seniors: We want to hear your rants/stories/hopes and dreams. Do you know what you’re doing after graduation? What are you going to do to the next person who asks you this question? Let us know!

About Heather Vandenengel

Heather Vandenengel (CAS '11) is a campus writer for the Quad.

View all posts by Heather Vandenengel →

2 Comments on “So What Are You Going To Do After You Graduate?: That Damn Question”

  1. I graduated a semester early so I have to admit to people that I have no idea! That leads to the question of “Well….are you getting married then?” No, leave me alone 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *