#wellesley alternative class notes

[wellesleyunderground]

Alternative Class Notes: Emily Johnson ‘10

How were you awesome this month?

Recovering from depression

What's on your mind?

How my rent is too damn high

This month has been: Challenging

because...

paying off credit card debt sucks. And moving sucks. And work is a crapshoot.

I wish people knew that

no one can be on top of their game 100% of the time, or even 80% of the time. You can slip. But don't hate yourself for it. Make small steps to pick yourself back up. Set boundaries between work and your personal life. Don't sacrifice what's important to you for a bigger paycheck. It is not worth it.

After graduating from Wellesley, I thought I would be

independent, successful, and happy.

but instead I am

struggling with the reality that I am a corporate drone. People live to work. I will never be that person.

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[wellesleyunderground]

Alternative Class Notes: Anon ‘13

How were you awesome this month?

I survived getting an IUD!

What's on your mind?

Currently, it's how to balance a big upcoming project at work with all the other tasks I have to do day-to-day.  This is made especially challenging as I have to micromanage the heck out of one of my collaborators, or they won't get anything done in a timely manner.  

This month has been: Challenging 

because...

Trying to do normal, day-to-day tasks with intense cramping really sucks, to be honest.

I wish people knew that

Working in IT is a legitimate career path, even though yes, you will probably be the only woman in the room.  A lot of the time I feel like if I didn't work for the company I'm currently at, people would dismiss my position offhand as not very impressive, or challenging, or successful.

After graduating from Wellesley, I thought I would be

somewhere in grad school, getting my masters or doctorate and moving on to "greater things".

but instead I am

sitting in a cozy office surrounded by computer hardware. I have a wall permanently decorated with Halloween decorations, little origami buddies on my monitor, and a space heater because my building is perpetually cold. Staring down the idea of $120k in grad school debt, I chose to use my Wellesley Help Desk experience to get a job. Instead of waiting it out for a few years and going to grad school as planned (I actually did apply to a couple of places a few years after graduation and was rejected, which was pretty crushing), I have worked my way up to a Systems Administrator position. I enjoy my job immensely, and the challenges it brings every day. I am not really using my degree from Wellesley, but I don't regret what I majored in. I am happy in the normal 9 to 5 grind, and have really hit my groove in life in a way that I never did at Wellesley. There have been a lot of "failures", you could say, in my "life plan" and what was expected of me by my family and friends coming out of a school like Wellesley, but I am doing my best to turn these into unexpected opportunities.  

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[wellesleyunderground]

Alternative Class Notes: Anon ‘09

How were you awesome this month?

I watched A Christmas Prince and A Christmas Prince: A Royal Wedding

What’s on your mind?

The path I thought my life would go at 18

This month has been

Challenging

because…

the holiday season stirs up a lot of negative emotions re: family relationships.

I wish people knew that

The old adage 'everyone is fighting a battle’ is so true. Even for those you may have 'known' for a long time, there could be so much more under the surface that you will never be privy to just depending on how much that person feels like they need to pretend in order to fit in.

After graduating from Wellesley, I thought I would be

extraordinary.

but instead I am

feeling like the same person I was at 14, trying to find a sense of belonging without being so desperate for external validation.

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[wellesleyunderground]

Alternative Class Notes: Anon ‘17

How were you awesome this month?

After applying for work since graduation, I finally managed to find a job.

What’s on your mind?

I spent all month job and apartment hunting. I finally found both of those things, but my job is only for a year. I'm worried that after it ends, I won't be able to find anything new. I have no idea what I actually want to do, and this search process has made me realize that that's such an important thing to consider when applying for jobs. I'm worried that I'll never find a job that I love or work that I feel fulfilled doing. What if I never achieve my dreams?

This month has been

Challenging

because…

I spent most of it feeling anxious about finding a job and looking for housing, and I just didn't feel prepared for any of this before graduating. I felt this huge pressure to be a "successful" alum who gets paid a lot of money and works in a prestigious field after graduating, but that's just not going to be my life. I know that a lot of people drift for the two or three years post-graduation, and I thought I could just skip that chapter of my life, yet here I am.

I wish people knew that

It's ok to struggle after graduation. It's ok to not have a fancy job, fellowship, or internship. It's ok to not make a lot of money. We don't need to be doing prestigious work in order for it to be important or in order for us to have value as people.

After graduating from Wellesley, I thought I would be

working immediately in a well-paid job at a prestigious company

but instead I am

spending a year working a low-wage job that will probably be more fulfilling than the other positions I applied for.

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Alternative Class Notes: Sam ‘12

I've been fired for the first time! It was certainly interesting seeing all of the ways that my "attitude" was used to justify it. Knowing that all of the men above me are patting themselves on the back for getting rid of a toxic element is incredibly frustrating and might be the one thing that upsets me with how everything went down.