On the "Real World"

I have now been living in the “real world” for just under a year. I graduated from college on May 17, 2004. It is now May 7, 2005. I have held various & sundry jobs & internships since then and simultaneously bask in the light of the real world & crave the intensity of academic life. Let’s look back over the last 12 months…

As I said a second ago, I graduated on the morning of May 17, 2004. After lunch with my family & close family friends, I spent the afternoon & evening madly trying to move out of my apartment (WFU kicks you out at 7pm on the day of graduation..thanks guys, thanks a lot). With the help of some friends, I was able to essentially throw everything out of my apartment and onto the patio outside. Technically, there was nothing left in my apartment…they let it slide.

After a few beers at the local generic mexican restaurant with my good friends Neal & Alex, I went to my friend’s house, where I would live for a week before my summer living quarters freed (sp?) up. That night, I passed out on a couch around 10pm and woke up the next afternoon around 4pm…I slept through 2 people moving out of the house and other such commotion. I was one tired man. Four years of intense liberal arts education will do that to you.

I spent the following week living in my friend’s house while she was at home in New York. I basically watched television & movies for a week straight. Unfortunately, I had to start a job that weekend (for those keeping count, May 20-23). My summer job was working for Winston-Salem Events, a company whose primary mission is to put on 3 outdoor concerts a week for the summer months (early May to late Septemberish). My official job title was something like “On-Site Crew Member,” or at least that’s what I put on my resume…I basically spent the summer bartending (i.e., serving Bud & Bud Lite to rednecks & 20′s business folk), setting up stages, moving large speakers, setting up mics, dealing with stupid people who didn’t like me because I went to Wake Forest, and enjoying good music…occasionally.

All in all, it was a pretty good summer. Kind of depressing at times…lots of questioning what I was going to do now that I had a Bachelor of Science degree under my belt, questioning whether it was worth it. But I lived in a beautiful house with fantastic people — I was able to live this way due to the kindness of my good friend Robbie (& the unending generosity of his parents). I only worked Thursday-Saturday (2pmish to 11pmish), so I had lots of time to explore Winston-Salem, travel a bit, etc. Since it was a fairly low-key job, I was even able to take time off to catch shows in other cities, and even take a vacation to Scotland with my family.

It got kind of strange when the Fall semester started — people would wonder what I’m still doing hanging around WFU. Thus, I stopped hanging around there. It was just too weird…I really kind of got immersed in the town of Winston-Salem for the first time in four years. Funny how that works. Taylor (roommate from senior year) worked at a local coffee shop (Chelsees), so I hung out there a lot when he was working, sipping on delicious coffees and studying/reading/writing whatever came to mind. I fell in love with an incredible bar – the Silver Moon Saloon. I also hung out at The Garage, The Werehouse, Speakeasy Jazz…

After the summer, Richard Emmett at the Garage was kind enough to let me tend the bar there a couple times a week. I basically continued my lifestyle, but without working so much

During all of this time, I applied to several jobs — I won’t list them here due to privacy concerns (not sure what that means). However, I will say that I got an internship doing software development for a newspaper company in atlanta. So, I packed up my life & headed back home.

Now’s where the term “real world” comes into play…at least, most folks’ definition of the term; that is, working 40 hours/week in an office. Here’s the beautiful thing about it — when I leave the office, I leave my work there. I don’t have the same worries I had while I was in school…there are no tests, quizzes, projects, homework, or anything of that sort. I work 40 hours a week — I generally work 9am-6pm (hour off for lunch). If I’m there at 6:15pm, my boss tells me to go home. Even today, a Friday, at 5pm, she told me to go home. It’s wonderful

The first big difference between school & work is there is a lot less work in work. I probably worked 70+ hours a week in school. I probably came close to nervous breakdowns a few times a semester. Now, I can actually go out after work, have drinks with friends, or just relax and watch tv or a movie.

Which brings up my second point, which was what I was mentioning earlier. One of the big problems at school was that when I was trying to relax & hang out with friends, I always had in the back of mind that I should be working on homework, preparing for a test, studying something or another, or generally should just be holed up in my room gasping for air. With a job, I can come home from work…and do anything I want to.

Which brings me to the next phase in my life (maybe 1-2 years off?…who knows): do I want to continue in the workplace and retain my sanity? Or do I want to leave for the incredible intensity of the ivory towers? More on that to come…

Thanks for reading. This is the first real blog entry in a while. We’ll see what happens next.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 6th, 2005 at 11:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.