Connect Statesboro 06.03.2015 www.connectstatesboro.com
4
Don't go cryin' to your mama EntER FOR RAFFlE FOR A ScOOtER AnD upgRADED intERiORS
2, 3, and 4 Bedroom Floor Styles Rent starting at
$299
• FREE Roommate Matching • Furnished Options Available • Washer and Dryer Pet Friendly. Large breeds welcome! 710 Georgia Ave. • Statesboro, GA 30458
(9 1 2 ) 8 7 1 - 6 5 0 1
www.southerndownsapartments.com
I probably listened to swelling student debt, which Paramore’s song “Ain’t It Fun” news outlets are saying is more than any other track the highest in U.S. history. last summer, during my first That feeling of fear and stress professional job hunt. Fresh I mentioned earlier is the off the plane from Thailand, same plenty of us feel when overwhelmed with the appliwe check our student loan cation process and reeling from accounts and see all the payreverse culture shock, the song Brittani Howell ments we still have to make. helped me orient myself. And it doesn't exactly help Its snarky, biting lyrics could have you shake the feeling that you've wanbeen salt in a wound as I grew more dered into adulthood by mistake and and more discouraged of ever finding that, soon, someone is going to catch work I wanted. Instead, its “suck it up you at it and kick you out. That first and deal” attitude was remarkably reasjob — that first year, really — doesn't suring. It said to me, “You’re not just make you feel the way you thought you overreacting. This adulthood thing is would feel as an adult. Here's another piece of advice I've hard and frustrating. No one’s going to be particularly sorry for you, because heard over and over from the adults we’re all doing it right now, but we do I've looked to for guidance: No one understand. It’s hard, and it's okay that ever gets that feeling. you're finding it hard.” In plenty of ways, that's completely Putting this issue together triggered terrifying, isn't it? "There is no goal! a sort of muscle-memory response as There is no end for personal growth I read through articles about the diffiand development! You're just here, culty of the post-graduate job hunt and with no direction!" The realization soaring student debt. I remember that that "growing up" did not end, the way feeling of fear, worry and helplessness a class or a book ends, bothered me as I checked my email inbox and found deeply at first. I'm still not entirely sure that the jobs I'd applied to the previous I believe it. week had still not gotten back to me. But on the other hand, the idea It's a seizing up of the muscles, a tightof there being no actual definition of ening in your shoulders, a speeding adulthood is freeing and, at times, of the heart like a trapped rabbit. I delightful. You get to make up your remember a tightness in my chest and own definition, haters be damned, and an inability, for weeks, to take a deep it can be as zany and frivolous as you breath. I was later told this was sympwant it to be. Pay the bills and build tomatic of panic attacks. pillow forts. Eat popcorn for dinner I don't envy any of you on your first and cheesecake for breakfast, because your parents probably did it when you professional, post-graduate job hunt weren't looking. right now. But for those of you who Keep yourself as safe and happy and are just starting the search, let me tell you what professors and advisors and healthy as you deem it reasonable to parents told me. It's a piece of advice be. Life is crazy and weird and a lot I've found incredibly true, helpful and more flexible, when it comes to "staninsanely relieving: The first job in your dards of adulthood," than we were ever field is the hardest job you'll ever have really led to believe. to get. Once you're in, applying for Ain't it fun? other jobs and making headway gets Brittani Howell is the editor of Connect so, so much easier. Statesboro. If you'd like to reach out, shoot That doesn't make everything a message to editor@connectstatesboro. else easier, necessarily. For instance, com! w it doesn't exactly do much for the