All throughout my graduation ceremony, I was thinking about High School Musical. This is ironic for a number of reasons, the most obvious being I was at my university graduation.

And it was strange. I wasn’t even thinking about High School Musical 3, where our heroes graduate from high school. I was thinking about the first movie. I was thinking about the “Get Your Head in the Game” scene with arguably the best basketball-related choreography from the mid-2000s. I was thinking about me, about all of us graduating, and how now, we all have to figure out how to become for-real adults. I was thinking, in this moment, we are all Troy.

It was a strange analogy, made worse by the fact that goddam song was stuck in my head for hours that day.

But my point stands. I think.

What I’m saying is, I’m a university graduate now. My degree is framed and everything. True scholar status has been achieved. Go home, James Franco.

There was an article in the New York Times not too long ago that interviewed a number of recent college graduates about their lives as graduates. Some of them were actually employed and seemed (suspiciously) to have their lives together. Others, of course, were working jobs they could barely afford rent on, and were so far removed from their degrees that it would be akin to going to school for basket weaving and getting a job in a steel plant.

I think most of us, other than those blessed with unwavering confidence, have thought about the latter situation. It would definitely be nice to step out of university right into a six-figured dream job but that’s not realistic. It wasn’t in the past, and it isn’t now with university degrees being valued less than ever before.

I got a degree in journalism. Half of my university experience was having tenure profs who worked at the Globe and Mail telling us about their glory days and the other half was earnest reassuring from professors that yes, there ARE still jobs in journalism! Entrepreneurship!!! 

Entrepreneurship is such a big buzz word right now probably because no one can actually find a job that they don’t make themselves.

There is a big part of me that’s saying, whatever, fuck it, I’ll make it. I’ll work hard and I’ll make it. There’s another part of me saying, you’re screwed, you’ll never be successful, just give up now.

It’s strange to be in a position where you’re simultaneously pitied because of the current difficulties in job hunting and then hated for being a member of the lazy, self-entitled millennial generation.

I’m nervous about life after graduation. To put a finer point on it, I’m scared shitless.

I want to believe (in myself and also aliens). I want to be confident in my skills and my work ethic. I want to not be afraid of taking chances and to say yes to every opportunity that comes my way.

I’m working on all of these things except the believing in aliens part. I’ve had that down since I was a toddler, tbh.

There’s no telling where I’ll be in ten years. My passport will be expired by then, hopefully I’ll have a job where I can afford a new one.

I can say that in two days, I’m moving from Kingston to Toronto on an internship with an online magazine. The internship is for three months, and then I’ll have to keep looking for work.

Since I’m beginning the rest of my life, I decided to start this blog. It’ll primarily be a fashion blog, but I also want to candidly document aspects of my post-grad life. In this case, candidly will probably just mean lots of swearing.

Obviously, everyone needs more fashion blogs in their lives, and everyone definitely needs someone like myself (a giant baby in adult-sized clothes) telling them how to become a grown-up.

Whatever ends up happening, remember guys: