Tues 4 March

So lately, some of the guys in my flat have been asking me what I plan to do after I graduate.  Since I’m the only final year student here, they’re echoing the sentiment that people have been questioning me about ever since I decided on English Lit.  Surprisingly, while I couldn’t have answered this question 3 years ago, I can do pretty well now.

While I can’t say I have a definite plan inasmuch as I haven’t been hired anywhere, I do know, in general, what I plan to do these next few months before graduation, as well as after I have actually finished and returned to the States.

Generally, for the next few months, I’m planning on sending my resume/CV to various newspapers, magazines, and other publications I’d like to get my foot in the door at – in any way possible.  If it means I’m coffee slave for a year or two, so be it.  I think the one flaw in studying abroad during my final year was the fact that I can’t go to these places personally, but so be it.

Along with this, I’ll obviously be expanding my portfolio, and with any luck sending off samples to blogging jobs that pay – while I doubt I’ll get hired at enough places to support me 100%, I may as well start working my way up the food chain of new media now.

Finally, I’ll probably end up getting a full time job at somewhere completely unrelated to writing and literature – because I want to start paying off my college loan ASAP.  Obviously, the idealistic freshman me cries at this – the idea behind doing literature was that I’d be doing a job that I loved, but I’ve realized it’s better to sacrifice a year or two working as hard as possible to pay off my student loan than be jobless for several years trying to get into a writing job or publishing a novel.

Anyway, that’s just the first step in my plan.  With any luck, some of these beginnings will pan out and from there I’ll go where life takes me.