What Now?

by Lauren

Today, Nicole, Sarah, and I got interviewed by the Greenwich Time (our local newspaper) about our upcoming road trip.  Colin, the reporter covering our story, asked us all sorts of questions about our involvement with Road Trip Nation like where the idea came from, what we're going to be doing, and what we expect to get out of it.  As the three of us got talking about it, we realized just how serendipitous it was that this amazing opportunity should arise for us right now, as it has.  All three of us are currently in unusual circumstances even beyond the position of facing the ever-looming Real World.  I'll let Sarah and Nicole tell their own stories, but here's mine.

About a year ago, as a senior at Trinity College (the one in Hartford, CT... apparently there are 4 of them) I started receiving Career Services e-mails on a weekly basis.  Feeling very "on top of things," I decided to go to the first career meeting of the year in early September.  I walked into the meeting room to find myself surrounded by... Juniors?  Sophomores? Freshmen?!  Apparently I didn't get the memo that career-building starts before you're actually looking for a job.  I spent the next hour listening to people younger than I talk about their internships and the classes they were taking to help them land jobs in their specialized fields and I had to ask myself, What's my field?  What am I qualified for?

I immediately set up a meeting with our campus Career Counselor for the next day.  Her first question was, of course, "What do you want to do when you graduate?"  I was completely embarrassed to say "I have no idea.  Oh, and I'm a Senior."  She assured me that even though I had gone through three years of college with no career path in mind, that I would be just fine.  I spent the next few months setting up interviews with companies that hire in the fall and attending job fairs in Boston and New York City.  Fall semester of last year, I devoted many hours to cover letters, thank you letters, editing my resume, and researching jobs I'm make-believe qualified for.  I discovered that a Liberal Arts major (Political Science) didn't get me as far as I had thought.  Many companies required business, finance, and economics backgrounds that I simply didn't have.  I felt unqualified for everything, and decided to take absolutely any interview I could get.

Most of my job interviews led to nothing, especially the one I went on for a financial firm in Boston that lasted all of three minutes.  The interviewer asked, and I quote, "So what makes you think you're qualified for this?" and when I responded with my well-rehearsed list of accomplishments, she said "Well thank you.  We'll be getting back to the people we want to see again within the next week" - AKA, not you.

As the time went on, I felt less and less qualified to enter the workforce.  I decided to take a job with any company that wanted me, regardless of how painfully boring the job description sounded.  I spent the next few months in the interviewing process for a company that, ultimately, would have been a horrible match for me.  I went to four interviews there (all of which went quite well, actually) only to be informed in July that they were no longer looking to fill the position I had so diligently chased after.  I had so long ago given up the idea of doing anything I like or am interested in, that I started, once again, to scan job websites for life-stifling positions that I might, somehow, be capable of fulfilling.

I quickly ran out of steam, though, lacking any motivation to start spending the rest of my life doing something I hate (crazy, right?).  I felt directionless as I watched the weeks slipping by and adding to the mountain of "wasted time" I was building.  That's when Nicole, Sarah, and I went out to Cosi for a five hour lunch that we will never forget.

As it turns out, we were all facing the same dilemma.  Plans had fallen through, post-graduate expectations not met, dreams way out of reach....  We all have our own stories, but we had one thing in common - an undeniable feeling of What Now?  We all talked about the things we care about and what we'd like to be doing, but how on Earth do you go about that?  Doing something I like?  Impossible.  For a long time I've wanted to be a photojournalist, a travel writer, or both, but had no idea that such a thing was attainable.  Then again, being a part of Road Trip Nation seemed fairly out-of-reach, as well.  In fact, seeing Nicole apply for the RTN grant and get it really made me ask myself how many things I didn't get just because I never even tried.

I am so looking forward to traveling around the good ol' US of A talking to people who followed their own dreams and achieved them, because hey - if they can do it, so can we, right?