By: Tim Donahue
There’s always been a track for me to follow. A path of precedent and expectation that guided me through my youth and young adulthood. My specific brand of suburbia has always come supplied with that trail. It’s painted on, it comes complete with arrows and red lights, wrong turn signs and a speed limit. Even when the sky’s gone black above me, I can see the stripes, the arrows on the ground to guide my way. Elementary school, junior high, high school, college, I trace unoriginal steps—always have, and for a long time I thought I always would.
Someone tells me how to vote, someone tells me what to write and then someone tells me whether it’s good or not. In four years at Western, I’ve considered it my greatest act of rebellion not being a STEM major. There is no six-figure job at the end of my path, in fact I’ve supplied it with a dead end. The road’s turning into an unmarked trail at the end of this year. I’ll get my cap and my gown, and I’ll ditch my path in exchange for a diploma.
I’ve seen this happen before, to my brother and older friends, coworkers who always seemed like adults to me. It happens to every one of us who is lucky enough to have gone to college, every one of us who is lucky enough to graduate, there’s immense privilege in my path, and even more in the fact that I’ve seen this transition done so many times before. But still sometimes it feels like I can’t help the isolation. Luckier than many people, I found a network of people to reach out to—about comparisons, graduations, adult life, and how life after Western differed from what they’d expected as students. So I reached out, I learned a lot, and all I had to do was ask.
Jack Donahue
Jack Donahue eating some grapes on a bench, right next to his bike. Chris Cadag
Jack Donahue, my older brother, graduated from Western with a History degree in 2021. After graduation he lived at home for a year before moving to Ballard, Washington and joining the ‘real’ world with scary adults. Jack had a hard time adjusting to the 40 hour work week, as he “abandoned any of the structure that he did have,” and “suddenly found himself with barely any time to work on things like passion projects, hobbies, and even chores.”
Jack went on to talk about the pressure he felt to “use his degree” coming out of college, like he needed to fit into his path of study in order to justify the sacrifices made in the name of his bachelor’s degree. This feeling caused him to leave a retail job that he really enjoyed in order to take a role as an executive assistant; using his degree [and I can attest to this] he was miserable.
He has since gotten a better, happier job, but still Jack would tell coming graduates to “avoid choosing a ‘career’ for as long as possible. Enjoy working at a cafe or a bar, and above all take your time.”
Chase Hilden
Chase Hilden holding a hatchet outside. Tim Donahue// Wavelength
Chase Hilden is Jack’s best friend, he graduated from Western with a degree in Visual Journalism and a minor in Audio Technology. After graduating, he found that most of his field’s work in Whatcom and Skagit county was in unpaid internships through the local newspapers of the area. “It was almost impossible to get a job related to [his degrees] in Bellingham,” Chase said. He found himself working as a line cook for another year before he actually moved to Seattle to take an entry level job in the audiovisual field.
When asked about his advice for students who are about to graduate, Chase echoed Jack’s sentiment. He said, “My advice to people about to graduate is to take your time and not rush into anything.” He enjoyed his time spent in Bellingham, even after graduation, saying “I think it allowed me to figure out what I really wanted to do.”
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It seems that the only sure thing about life after graduation is the uncertainty. So many are in such a rush to get the degree and immediately prove that it was all worth it, but if we’ve learned anything from Jack and Chase, we’ve learned that everything comes in time. It will always be slower than you want it to be, there will be retail jobs, you’ll work with high schoolers and a hundred who stuck in their hometown to brag about the money they’ve earned by avoiding college and student loans. There will be dark rent-free nights in your parents house, there will be more shared spaces. Claustrophobia and failure, the sense will permeate your cap and your gown until you shove them both into the closet because you can’t stand to look at them anymore. But that night, like all others, you’ll have to go to bed, and like every night before there is always the possibility of a better morning.
And my support network looks completely different than yours! I tend to be a bit of a hermit when it comes to asking about the serious stuff, but all it took was a few simple questions to get some of the clarification that I really needed! The abstract is scary, and life after college is nothing if not cloudy. It can help to reach out. Even if it’s not to ask for help [which can be even harder], and even if the news isn’t always easy to hear, clarification can go a long way towards achieving peace of mind.