9/14/2015 Amanda Steelman 8 min read
Written by Amanda Steelman
Well hello again!
I guess I had too much fun blogging about my study abroad experiences in Sweden, so I’m back. Except now, instead of “Follow Amanda’s Swedish Adventures!” it’s probably going to be more like “Watch Amanda Attempt to Figure Out Life After College!”
I intended to start the next leg of my blogging journey as soon as graduation was over; that way I could chronicle my adventures as I moved across the country and got settled down here in Houston, but then I moved down here to Texas and well, things got busy. There’s a lot more to the whole relocating process than I realized. But hey! I’m here! I made it!
I was actually out in the parking garage today when something prompted me to finally sit down and start this. I was changing my license plates over from my Illinois ones to Texas ones (I got them today, so I guess it’s finally official!) and I had my toolkit with me (because I’ll be honest, I’ve never put plates on a car, I had no idea what I was dealing with haha) and a guy walks out of the building and sees me sitting there screwing in my new plates and he shouts, “Oh my god! A girl actually using tools!” and he said it with a laugh and a smile on his face, but he repeated it way too many times and with too much surprise for it to have just been a joke. I laughed the first time, but around the third I looked at him and said, I sure hope I can use tools, or I just wasted a lot of time and money on an engineering degree. He walked away pretty quickly after that.
I’ll admit that I’m not the most tool savvy, but comments like that really bum me out, because there are so many girls, engineers or not, that are just as worthy of rocking tools as guys are. Which leads me to my shameless plug of a really YouTube video made by one of my classmates and fellow graduates, Kimmi Slaughter, “What Will We Miss if She Misses Out?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj8T5LIqEik). It’s a really cool video and if you haven’t seen it before, you should definitely check it out!
Sort of along the same lines, I’ve been thinking a lot since graduation how funny it feels to actually have graduated. Maybe I will feel differently once I start working, but right now it seems almost anticlimactic really. You spend four, in my case five, years of your life working towards this goal that so many times feels completely unachievable and impossibly far away, and then all of a sudden you’re walking across the stage, diploma in hand (okay, well the diploma folder). And that’s it. You’re done. Maybe some of you out there are more positive than me, but there were so many classes that I thought there was no way I was ever going to survive, but I just pushed through it and now I’m here. And it’s weird. It’s kind of like it needs to be one of those cheesy T-shirts “I spent four years of my life crying because I swore I was going to fail and all I got was this piece of paper.” That’s kind of how it feels at first.
But then I moved into my apartment, started buying furniture, registered my car in Texas and I realized that I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for that piece of paper, or really the university career that came before it. I’m also really excited to start my new job at the end of July. That’s also part of why I’m writing this now too, because (from what I’ve heard of course) life after graduating is pretty awesome. Knowing graduates while I was still in school helped get me through those impossible classes and those long homework assignments, because there has to be a light at the end of the tunnel right? I’ll be checking in periodically and babbling about adjusting to the big kid world and hopefully this helps shed some light on the whole adventure for all of us
Until next time!
Out with the old and in with the new! And now since I've graduated to the alumni plate holder, I get to have U of I on my front and back plates!
I guess I had too much fun blogging about my study abroad experiences in Sweden, so I’m back. Except now, instead of “Follow Amanda’s Swedish Adventures!” it’s probably going to be more like “Watch Amanda Attempt to Figure Out Life After College!”
I intended to start the next leg of my blogging journey as soon as graduation was over; that way I could chronicle my adventures as I moved across the country and got settled down here in Houston, but then I moved and well, things got busy. There’s a lot more to the whole relocating process than I realized. But hey! I’m here! I made it!
I was actually out in the parking garage today when something prompted me to finally sit down and start this. I was changing my license plates over from my Illinois ones to Texas ones (I got them today, so I guess it’s finally official!) and I had my toolkit with me (because I’ll be honest, I’ve never put plates on a car, I had no idea what I was dealing with, haha) and a guy walks out of the building and sees me sitting there screwing in my new plates and he shouts, “Oh my god! A girl actually using tools!” and he said it with a laugh and a smile on his face, but he repeated it way too many times and with too much surprise for it to have just been a joke. I laughed the first time, but around the third I looked at him and said, "I sure hope I can use tools, or I just wasted a lot of time and money on an engineering degree." He walked away pretty quickly after that.
I’ll admit that I’m not the most tool savvy, but comments like that really bum me out, because there are so many girls, engineers or not, who are just as worthy of rocking tools as guys are. Which leads me to my shameless plug of a really great YouTube video made by one of my classmates and fellow graduates, Kimmi Slaughter, called “What Will We Miss if She Misses Out?” It’s a really cool video and if you haven’t seen it before, you should definitely check it out!
Sort of along the same lines, I’ve been thinking a lot since graduation how funny it feels to actually have graduated. Maybe I will feel differently once I start working, but right now it seems almost anticlimactic really. You spend four, in my case five, years of your life working towards this goal that so many times feels completely unachievable and impossibly far away, and then all of a sudden you’re walking across the stage, diploma in hand (okay, well the diploma folder). And that’s it. You’re done. Maybe some of you out there are more positive than me, but there were so many classes that I thought there was no way I was ever going to survive, but I just pushed through it and now I’m here. And it’s weird. It’s kind of like it needs to be one of those cheesy T-shirts “I spent four years of my life crying because I swore I was going to fail and all I got was this piece of paper.” That’s kind of how it feels at first.
But then I moved into my apartment, started buying furniture, registered my car in Texas and I realized that I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for that piece of paper, or really the university career that came before it. I’m also really excited to start my new job at the end of July. That’s also part of why I’m writing this now too, because (from what I’ve heard, of course) life after graduating is pretty awesome. Knowing graduates while I was still in school helped get me through those impossible classes and those long homework assignments, because there has to be a light at the end of the tunnel, right? I’ll be checking in periodically and babbling about adjusting to the big kid world and hopefully help shed some light on the whole adventure for all of us. :)
Until next time!