Five Things I Discovered in Life After College

I’ve been living in Jakarta for roughly six months. There’s no such thing as being grateful for what I’ve got so far. In a world where there’s no clarity but uncertainty, college graduates have to deal with more complex problems from what they used to experience. Some have to work their ass off to survive, but some are just lucky. Some have their life planned, but the rest is just following the stream.

What about you?

Well, I think I’m just short of a lucky guy who embraced emerging opportunities earlier. I used to be the one who planned everything, but some were to no avail. Whenever I wanted something, God seems like has another plan for his creature. Rest assured, it’s the best that is yet to come.

Here are five things I recently discovered:

 

1. A new place to grow
Jakarta is likely the third city I used to live in, consecutively after Surabaya and Porto. I’m always intrigued to travel to a place I’ve never been to. I feel like I could leave all the troubles behind and be the best part of me. I have no issues with the loneliness or adaptation, as long as it guarantees a decent and safe place, there’s no need to have a significant other.

 

 

2. Financially independent
Being financially stable is somehow dreams of students as soon as they graduated. And I can say that’s one of my goals in life too. But it’s absolutely not the main reason to be employed. Wage is important in order to keep us alive, but it’s not everything. As skills improved, I believe the money would follow.

 

3. Diverse people
As the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta consists of a diverse group of ages, ethnicities, citizenship, you name it. I stumbled upon various traits, habits, that are practicality new to me. The senior folk’s joke, the gossip girls, the clubbing gang, and so on. I learned a lot from them.

 

4. Challenging environment
The atmosphere of the challenge is quite apparent here. People would have their own subtle ways to get promoted or merely an increment in their monthly wage. Little did I know, in startups, or private companies, the competitiveness is much more rigorous.

 

5. A whole lot to learn by being a generalist
Right after graduation, I haven’t decided what’s the career path I want to take. At that time, it’s even impossible to get called for an interview due to fewer vacancies open for architecture graduates. Now, I’m working in a state-owned company where there’s no specific job to handle. Though I’m an architecture graduate, I also have to get the mechanical, electrical, civil engineering, done. Not to mention the administrative stuff. At first, I was like in the verge of burning out. But don’t worry, it’s getting better here. What about being a specialist? It’s on the plan.

 

How’s your first job? This kind of talking always excites me. I’ll get back as soon as possible.