I felt this grey, monstrous London of ours, with its myriad of people, its sordid sinners, and its splendid sins... must have something in store for me. I fancied a thousand things.
-Oscar Wilde-
You’re in your 20’s. You successfully and proudly graduate from university. You have dreams. The world is your oyster. You can do whatever you want to do. You are going to be somebody!
Following my two years of on and off around-the-world travelling, I made the decision that it was time to settle and focus on my career. And there was only one place for this – ‘The Big Smoke’. This was where real life was to begin for this little person! And there were three things I was to pursue, and keep:
1. Boyfriend
2. Nice Flat
3. Good job
To be fair to myself, I have got number 1 and 2 (Number 1 is amazing and a keeper by the way). And this is not to belittle this fact, or the other things I am very lucky to have.
I am of the “I want it all, and I want it all now” generation. This mixed with my personal pursuit of high achievement, means I am frustrated about not having gained all three wants by the age of 24. And I know I am not alone, as many of my friends and acquaintances find themselves in the same situation. But we are so young! Why so much pressure?
What I am lacking is number 3 - a good job.
Is it the recession? Is it the media? Is it the comparison to other people? Or is it me? Okay, maybe it’s a bit of everything. But anyone who decided to pursue their career (unsuccessfully) within the last two years may well blame the recession. I blame the recession.
Okay, so my job is not THAT bad. I earn well. I am doing what I wanted to do. But it is not all I thought it would be, without going into any detail (please meet me at the pub for more information!). I have turned into the people I used to laugh at – I am the people who moan onerously about their job.
And I ask myself, what happened to that old little saying I used to tell everyone: If you don’t like your life, you can change it?
I am not alone in searching for a new job. And I am a good candidate. When will this recession be done with so I can maybe - just maybe - start living that London job dream?
If you don’t like your life, you can try to change it. And don’t give up!
Well you know that you're not alone - I need #3 too! In fact I just did my first blog post MOANING about it...
ReplyDeleteWill probably need #2 too soon...
Clinging on to #1 for dear life.
I'm about to third the job moaning post probably, haha! I come back and literally CANNOT figure out what my job share partner has done while I've been away. Madness!
ReplyDeleteAnyway...yes, I blame the recession too. But I really think we have a point! We're perfectly well qualified and employable people...it's just there's so few jobs around these days. As you say, though, hang on in there, it will get better - it has to, surely! and in the meantime keep obsessively checking reed.co.uk, haha!
And I think the problem is, since there are so many graduates, it's not a good way of judging people any more, since they all have the same qualifications. So young people are forced to become cutthroat or pigeonholed or a whole pile of things they never wanted to be just to survive. And wow, that's not a nice thought, for somewhere you have to spend more of your life than anywhere else...work.
But there will be something, one day. And when you (we)'re there, it'll be so worth it!