Post Grad Confusion

Hey everyone!

I know it has been a long time since I last posted on this blog and that I have not kept up with my new years resolution of staying active on this blog, but 2026 isn’t over yet and I can still redeem myself. And there is good reason for my absence.

I have finally graduated from university!!! Yayyyy!

I always wondered whether I would achieve this, considering how difficult it was for me and how demanding my university was. I am extremely happy, and I am super excited for what’s to come next.

Although graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration has been a great personal win, it has also been a very interesting experience. And yes, by that I do mean strange or weird like the British often do.

I wanted to share some thoughts on what I personally experienced and still am experiencing after graduating from university and how these past few weeks after finishing have been so unexpected.

I graduated in September after 5 long and confusing years, which is amazing news, but I have to say, it was not a very smooth ride.

To give you some context I never really enjoyed school. I like learning but I was never a big fan of sitting in a classroom for 6 to 8 hours a day and being lectured about topics that make you wonder why you’re even there. But going to university felt a little different. At first I did not think it a problem that I don’t like studying, because I told myself that this time it would be different, as at university I would be choosing what to study. And it really was exciting and fun the first year, but very quickly I realised that it’s not really any different from attending high school, except that the material you are learning is much harder and you have to be studying pretty much all the time outside of classes. So I’m saying all this just to explain that I did not think going to university was going to be this big of a challenge in my life.

It is quite funny because I thought I would feel so relieved once I graduated, but to my surprise, I felt quite the opposite. Don’t get me wrong, I was extremely happy and relieved once I got the news, but after a couple hours I started thinking ‘what’s next’? I was very confused because suddenly I was free of university, but at the same time I started feeling all the freedom and benefits that comes with being a student suddenly disappear and all the worries and responsibilities of adulthood slowly take over my thoughts. It was a very strange feeling that I had not expected at all.

When you are a student, you somehow have your path set out for you, at least for the next three to five years, whereas once you are not a student anymore everything is completely up to you. Suddenly you have to make all these decisions that will impact the rest of your life and you feel like you have to make them very quickly as you’ve got to work to make a living. Of course everybody’s situation is different but I’m trying to share how it was for me personally. And I’m sure that a lot of my fellow graduates can relate.

I feel like only after you graduate you feel like you have to start making all these decisions on your own, and these are big decisions such as, what do I want to do in my life? Where do I want to work? Where do I want to live? What kind of lifestyle do I want to have? Of course big decisions are also made before this period, such as whether you want to study, if yes, what do you want to study and where. But somehow I feel that during this time you have guidance from your school and your parents, but after graduating come the big questions. At this point everything is up to you.

Should I do a gap year to figure out my life and what I want to do, should I continue my studies, should I escape the city and live a simple life in the countryside, or should I apply for a job and begin a career in a high paying industry. These are the questions I was confronted with.

I am however very aware that simply being able to ask myself these questions is such privilege. Young people in many other countries would kill to have the privilege of choosing what to do in their lives. Not all of us are this fortunate. So keeping this in mind, rather than stress about what to do next I should be grateful for the opportunities life has presented me with.

The strangest thought I had after graduating was actually considering to continue studying. I think it arose because of the fact that I wasn’t even sure whether I was going to graduate in the first place, but perhaps once I did, I believed I could study even more. But after some introspection I realised I only thought of that because of the little confidence boost I gained from graduating and not because I actually wanted to do that.

To be honest after reflecting on this confusing time, I realised that I am one of the lucky ones. I actually know what I would like to do in the future, or at least I do have goals and a direction. I know that my passions lie in hospitality and that I will definitely end up in or at least be involved in that industry in the future. So even though I might not have a super specific goal, I definitely do have direction and something to work towards. So I am very grateful for that.

For those who do not know what they want and what they want to do, I guess they should take the time and figure it out. But I suggest keeping in mind what a privilege it is to be able to ask ourselves these questions and not get caught up in the stress and worries these confusing times might bring.

I wish all recent graduates good luck with finding their path in life and I do believe that sometimes it takes a lifetime to figure ourselves out so we should not stress and rush these things but take our time while enjoying every bit of the journey.

I hope I did not bore you too much with my personal experience post-graduation but that at least some of you can relate and perhaps even gain some insight from this post.

Thank you for reading and see you in the next one!