Although I see a job, especially one related to my degree, as the next logical step and am actively looking for one, I have also (a bit randomly) decided to take off to Australia for a month. I had originally wanted to travel in and around Ghana or Eastern Africa doing volunteer work; however the amount of planning and time spent waiting for the departure kept me undecided during the four months leading up to my graduation. The outbreak of violence in Kenya and a lack of support from my family eventually swayed me against the idea and I threw myself into my job search as a result. I was literally consumed by it and my part-time job at Starbucks until one day when I was talking to my friend Jordan on the phone. He had decided to take a well-deserved 3 months off before starting his career in Finance with his father's firm. He had tried to persuade me months earlier to come to Asia with him but had received my stubborn refusal.
Then after christmas, I was about to interview with Unilever (one of my dream companies) when I asked what he had done that day. He couldn't give me one solid, constructive activity that he had done. I laughed and asked what the point of taking time off was if you sat around bored all day. And he said I'm not sitting around, I'm waiting for you to come your senses and come traveling with me. "Well" I said "I'll go if you can compromise and come to Australia." I had been so set on Africa that I hadn't even tossed around the idea of something else once it fell through. Despite not even feeling sure or giving it much thought before the sentence left my mouth, we spent the next few days researching and planning and had tickets and an itinerary in our sights by the end of the week.
Meanwhile I had gotten a second interview at Unilever and had been told I would hear back within 2-4 weeks (basically when we had planned to be very much in Australia). So another week went by during which I analyzed and contemplated what it was that I truly wanted to do with my life. It was initially difficult to get past everyone else's assumptions and expectations, but I realized that as much as I wanted Unilever, I wanted to see the world more. Plus Unilever was not even a job...just a chance at a job. So we booked the tickets two weeks ago for February 9th to March 12th and I never looked back.
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