She just finished her three years at University of Lincoln and cannot find herself able to think of anything more pleasurable and satisfying than those three years in absolute bliss, friendship and hard work in Lincoln.
The late nights, the money worries, the outfit worries, the “who should I pop round to see tonight” worries and all those other small things that manage to wiggle themselves somewhere in the middle. Of course by that I mean the constant blinding fear that you might not get the desired grade at the end of it all.
And yet, all I wanted and strived towards was independence. A 9 to 5 job in London, the big city where you could do just about anything and everything.
Within the first month of leaving university, I was lucky enough to find such a job in London.
I also managed to get my own place and live the life (my dream), right? Well I think it would have been foolish of me to believe that there would not be tough times. But at the same time I honestly thought that the good stuff would balance out the bad ones.
Now my life consists of those mandatory 9 to 5 hours. And just like having a “Eureka” moment there is a sudden understanding of the “Friday blues” and that song by some artist who did what no one else managed to do. Put down on paper how “manic Monday” s can truly be.
I guess I was never able to understand these small and yet so significant things. That is purely because of my experience of work life, or better said the lack of.
With all my other part-time jobs, I always found it easy to distance myself from all the stress and the people that you cannot seem to be able to connect with so you just have a laugh about it.
With this new found experience, that yellow line between work and life does not exist anymore. You find yourself more involved with it all to the point of no return.
At the end of the day I am really happy that I found a job and a place of my own and all those other things that sound so glamorous and mature, like bills and going out for drinks after a hard day’s work at the office.
And as I consider all those wonderful and not so wonderful things, there is one thing that I would probably change if given the opportunity: my attitude. I wish I would have really taken advantage of how good it all was and grasp its worth.
By Dana Stancu