Sunday, June 24, 2012

A Year After Graduation - Five Things I Have Accomplished So Far

Graduation season continues. Last weekend PSU, OSU, and U of O had their graduation commencement. I was surprised that all three schools had the same day for commencement. My Facebook news feeds were busy with my friends' graduation updates. Wow!! I still don't feel this photo was actually taken a year ago. It was just like yesterday. Time just flies and I can't stop it!! 
I did some reflection about this past year and summarized what I have accomplish so far. 


In my last post I talked about five things I learned, and for this post, I am going to talked about five things I did after graduation.  (Are there any of my blog readers realized I really like the number five?)

1. I am half way done with my Post-Baccaurate Certificate in Accounting Program. The fall term following my graduation, I started online Post-Bacc Program. First, I was scared of whether I can balance work and study or not. I also never took online classes before, so I was worried. Well, there was no fear with the flexible and helpful online education. Now I am more than half way done, my grades are good so far, and I learned a lot.  

2. I worked two jobs. So far I worked jobs. One was part-time and one was full-time. The lessons I shared in my last post were mostly from those two jobs. First working full-time was stressful, but it was a great practice for me to adapt the 9am - 5pm Monday through Friday work schedule. 

3. I lost some weight and developed a healthier lifestyle. I started to lose weight when I was sophomore in college. Back then I lost weight in the hard way. I was stress out from not eating any sweets.  The summer of my graduation, I finally learned eating in moderation, so I don't have to completely give up sweets. I also try to exercise every day and take a walk after each meal. 

4. I learned how to cook and clean WELL. Don't get confused, I DID some cooking and cleaning on my own in college or EVEN before college. I started to learn how to cook and clean when I was in 4th or 5th grade. Back then, it was "because my mom told me," "require for school," and "to impress my friends." I also did not do a good job. The moment I graduated from college I realized, from now on I really need to be independent. I have to cook and clean not for someone else (mom, school, friends), for ME. I want to eat food and live in a neat place. I also got much better doing those.

5. I started blogging and finally able to stick with it: I did a little bit of blogging when I was in high school, (it was called Xanga) but I did not continue to write. There were several moments in college when I thought about start a blog again, but I never did.  Several weeks after graduation, I finally started to write again. For the past year, my writing skills improved and my viewers grew for a little. I hope I will keep writing as long as I can even no one is reading it.


All in all, there were so many things happened in short one year post grad life.  


For the Next One Year: 
1. Finish Post-Baccaurate Certificate in Accounting Program
2. Find a permanent job using the skill I learn from last two jobs
3. Lose more weight and also build a better shape
4. Continue to improve cooking and cleaning skills
5. Write better posts and hope to attract more viewership. 




Tuesday, June 12, 2012

To The Graduates of 2012

One Year Ago....








I can't believe it has been a year since I graduated. (take a look at my post about graduation) It is the season of graduation, again. I can see a lot of cap and gown pictures posted on Facebook and other blogs. There are many decorations for graduation parties and gifts for gradates are sold in the stores. When I was in college,  I did not image how my life after college will be, so there were a lot surprises and new things. 


To all the people who graduated this year, this is a little message from me.

1. From now on, find own time to study.  There is no more BOOKED class time because it is no longer like in school. Make time to study could hard in the post grad life. Depends on each person's situation and work requirements, study/classes might not be the priority, anymore. 


2. Life is no longer interesting after graduation. When work starts, life is not fun like in college. Most jobs has same routines everyday. People go to the same place, see the same people, and perform the same tasks everyday could be become boring at some point. 


3. Lessons are no longer only come from books and there is no definite grade. This is the toughest change I went though. As a student, I tended to only rely the facts from books and a definite grade to evaluate my performance. Reality is not like the books, and everything can not be easily evaluated as A, B, or C. I am still trying to adapt to this concept. It will take sometime to get use to. 


4. A lot of things became self taught. Most bosses and older employees usually do not like teaching the new employees. They would not willing to spoon feed the tasks. New employee must to find their own way to learn the work-related things.


5. Mistakes are not directly mentioned. Some bosses hope their co-workers will notice mistakes on themselves instead of telling them to fix. They are not like professors, sometimes they don't point the mistakes out directly. People have to be more carefully and organized at the work. 


All in all, post grad life was tough for me, but those hard times helped me grow and learn. Besides the life lessons, I learned the the word roots of graduation -"grad" means step up. After graduation is like one step up from student life.