I’ve never felt such an overwhelming combination of being royally confused, frustrated, scared, nervous, worried and excited all at once. The feelings fluctuate and change, and sometimes one overpowers the others, but overall, those are the feelings I go through.

This stage of my life is unlike any other. It’s different when you’re starting a new chapter of your life, and you know what that chapter will be (i.e. high school, college, etc.), but when you know where you want to end up yet have little to no clue how to get there, it can be scary, not to mention a little annoying.

I can’t even tell you how many jobs I’ve applied for over this past summer; I’m guessing it’s close to around 100. I also can’t tell you how many people I’ve reached out to directly to see if there were any job openings, and when they clearly didn’t have anything for me, I’d simply ask for some sort of advice. They all essentially led to the same answer: networking.

I found that, through my ongoing mission to find a job remotely related to my field of interest, the handful of times when I heard back from someone with something positive was when I e-mailed someone in the company directly. I’ve also learned that applying to jobs online apparently only has a 10% success rate, which I can definitely see to be true now more than ever, since I pretty much never got a response back when I applied for a job online. When I did get a response, it was a rejection, but to me that’s better than no answer at all because at least it’s definite clarification.

It’s just hard because there have been a couple of instances, especially recently, when I was beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel, a glimmer of hope that my dream of taking that first step into the real world will finally be made a reality. I’m still holding on to that hope, because there’s still a couple things that I’m waiting to hear back on that may possibly lead to something. *Fingers crossed* If not, onto other options. Bottom line is I need to start making money, and soon. I’ve got students loans that need to start getting paid off very soon…

In regards to finally starting the new chapter of my life, there’s one phrase that stuck with me from a job hunter’s book (which I took out from the library and briefly skimmed through but didn’t actually read), and that is this: “Vision is everything.” I love that, because it’s the very thing that always keeps me going. Never lose your vision. Never forget your goal. Never give up. That’s what I constantly remind myself, because I have to, because I need to, because I want what I want and I know I’ll get there one day.

And you will, too.

Best,

Ali