After the novelty of college graduation (and all the great gifts that came with it) wore off, I spent a year crying myself to sleep. And I’m not exaggerating. While being done with school after 16 years was pretty liberating, not knowing what was coming next scared the sh*t out of me. And the fact that no one ever warned me how difficult being an adult would be made things a whole lot harder.

I went through a lot that first year – looking for a job, moving to a new city, ending a long relationship, and learning how to care for myself, to name a few – all by myself and now feel that I have the experience and knowledge to advise others on the transition. Because it’s a hard one and every college grad should know that they are not alone. Come back every week for another nugget of information to help you survive in the big, bad world.

My commencement speaker, like most commencement speakers, spent 25 minutes telling my graduating class about the endless possibilities in the real world. He spoke of our bright futures, giving back, and making the world a better place.  The speech was inspiring, but now that I’m on the other side of the cap and gown, I wish he had gone in another direction.

Perhaps he could have taken a more realistic approach and warned us of how hard that first year after college was going to be. And that it was OK to be really, really unhappy.

When you’re a college senior, life after college seems like a glamorous world filled with an awesome new job, an awesome new city, and a bright, successful future. You see all those people who graduated before you living it up and enjoying their new place in the real world.

The reality, though, isn’t quite so bright and cheery. The truth: that first year out of college isn’t always so easy. In fact, it’s pretty sh*tty. Read More »

Warning: This post contains spoilers!

Recently USA Today ran an article questioning Juno’s portrayal of teen pregnancy. It seems that some people worry the movie glorified the whole thing.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think they missed the point of Juno. One of the quotes in the article suggests that teens won’t see that Juno faced any consequences, because the baby was “handed off.” Juno ended up with her boyfriend and was able, presumably, to go on with life as usual.

Sorry, but I think that’s BS. First of all — and I don’t know how many times we have to stress this before the right-wingers get it — pregnancy is NOT about punishment. Yes, the movie ended happily, but it wasn’t because Juno didn’t face any consequences. It was because she made a big, and really tough, decision. I don’t think that even a self-involved teen is going to miss that. Read More »