msuCatalyst →

By Cherin Gillies

I’ve never ran a race in my life except for the 50-meter dash in the fourth grade. Scarcely the kind of race that adults my age are running (15k, no thank you) I have never fancied my curvy physique to travel faster than 6mph and consequently, I don’t entertain thoughts of being a marathon-maven. My friends joke that when walking, I sway from left to right more readily than I travel forward. While I invoke my bombshell-esque body structure (not to mention my unease with public perspiration) in defense of my running-aversion, I proclaim myself to be the winner of another kind of race that luckily didn’t require a sports bra and ugly nylon shorts.

I’m talking of course, about obtaining a college degree. A lot of hard work and dedication went into getting it and it was always one foot in front of the other (though I never was offered a sponsorship by Nike… much to their chagrin if you ask me). If you’ve ever spent an all-nighter sweating out the contents of a can of Red Bull in a muggy library while racing toward a deadline (I suppose public perspiration isn’t avoidable after all…much to my chagrin), you may as well agree I could relate to those grossly salty, sweaty runners in the Chicago marathon. But while I imagine all good runners look forward to unlacing their sneaks and soaking up the suds after a demanding race, I’m finding that I’ve got to loop, swoop, and pull those laces a little tighter before I get to kick back in a bubbly bliss.

Soon after reaching the figurative finish line of graduation, you too will come to realize that your racing days are not over. If you aren’t busy abroad working an internship and enjoying the delights of a foreign city in your free time (like I was), you might come to that convenient realization far before you return home and get that degree in the mail that instructs your kind postman “DO NOT BEND”. Ladies and Gentleman, in the job race you will be doing yourself a favor if you start that search long before you reach the finish line. I gave myself a running start of a mere two and a half weeks before I dabbled in job-searching—it wasn’t until I returned home from my summer abroad that I even filled out an application. But not to discredit myself entirely, life happens. Unless allowing yourself a window—for listlessness, among other things that befall unemployed college grads—to enjoy life a little and adjust to this new course, accept the ample free time you have graciously. Though I prefer to keep busy (someone hire me, please!) I haven’t altogether lost my wits because my only current option when filling out forms is to check the “unemployed” box.

I find myself lucky enough to depend upon the generosity of my mother while I’m stuck in this employment-intermission (sounds better than ‘the disgrace of unemployment’, eh?) and so at least I have that to rely upon for this intermittent period.  Even luckier still, this process takes time—much more than I anticipated—and what college student (or graduate) has that much savings to depend upon, anyway? It was nearly two weeks before I heard a response from some applications I filled. Factor in another week or so after an interview for reference checks and considerations for other candidates, and you’ll find that this process (though I wouldn’t mind using a choice four letter word here) takes a long (insert other choice four letter word) time. Equate the difficulty of job searching to running a marathon and I think we have here a very successful, long-running metaphor (no pun intended) and, I’ll be honest, a tough road ahead (pun very much intended)… but thankfully no real sweat is involved.