10 February 2009

Mood du jour: Ranting

As a young, freshly graduated individual, one imagines that wonderful prospects lie ahead. There is a sense of invincibility, determination and ambition. You are inspired to make valuable use of the knowledge and opinions you have obtained and formed during your time at university. You feel you have a more informed consciousness with which you will strive to further the messages on ecology, fair-trade, sustainable and renewable energies… All big words that have become daily figures in a 21st century mind. You don’t for a second imagine that at the bright young age of 21, you will do what so many end up doing: a job that they hate. You are aware that this is merely a ‘phase’ in your life (or so you keep telling yourself), but in the mean time it can be a daily struggle to not become cynical.

When you are a recent graduate, everyone keeps telling you – you are young and the world is your oyster. Fair enough – but you need a fair bit of bloody cash to do anything these days. That’s my excuse anyhow for my current position. I’m in transit you see – from university student to professional. I currently don’t consider myself a professional - merely a temporary employee undecided about the directions to take in life and in the mean time going through a tough apprenticeship of real life, post-uni, in the modern business world in order to save a few pennies. I don’t even want to be in business. But it seems that to make anything of yourself today, you need to have a certain sense of business, negotiation and bags of balls. Excuse my language but you can’t help but feel a little frustrated from time to time. I am thankful that considering the current ‘crisis climate’ I have a job. But you can’t help but feel a certain sense of dissatisfaction when, for the past three years, you have been studying the socio-political aspects of modern society, media and defining and re-defining ‘terrorism’… yet for the last week I have been establishing and reviewing a stationary list and most importantly, deciding on the size and colour of post-its, for a diva-esque director who is reminiscent of ‘a devil wears prada’.

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