My Plans after Graduation
One exam left woohoo! Freedom is near. Here are my thoughts about the future:
What will probably happen: Fingers-crossed I will get a solid grade which will allow me to take up my place as a masters student of Intercultural Communication and Education at Durham University. This will come after a summer of volunteering at my local Oxfam bookshop and British Heart Foundation charity shop, taking part in Clean Up Scotland and sending polite yet constructive emails to the council and other organisations about ways they could benefit from becoming more sustainable.
Job hunt side note: I did apply for a Warwick Summer Internship, a job at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and work experience at a carbon calculator charity, didn’t get them. Will go on a hunt for signs in shops when back home, maybe something will come up. I read recently that over a third of uni graduates are in jobs they are over-qualified for. Sounds legit. I was offered a great sounding part time job at the Refugee Centre as an assistant teacher here in Cov but it was only every few weeks and am moving away unfortunately.
What I kind of want to happen instead: Have the same nice summer volunteering/working in Edinburgh, apply for a masters in Conservation and Wildlife Management/Ecology/Forestry/something related at a few universities and by some miracle be offered a place. The reason I am having doubts about Durham is because although I am enthusiastic about the content, the assessment method of every single module is a 5000 word essay, which sounds, frankly, soul-destroying. Ironic, considering the postgrad is about how to inspire others with education.
I’ve been hoping that with that masters, I could gear my studies along a sustainable route – what can we learn from schooling in other cultures to teach people about the impact of climate change etc. However, considering how quickly we have to convert businesses from fossil fuels to renewable energy and plant millions of trees etc, I think it might be more useful to gain a more applicable skill in this field or start working for environmental charities straightaway.
Love a good dilemma. I’m not alone though – some of my pals from German have grad jobs lined up with Santander and Pwc, some of them are doing translation masters or teacher training, one has a job as a live-in assistant at a boarding school, one will be lecturing at a French uni, some want to travel, and a lot have no idea, simply want to rest for a while and then start the job hunt.
Good luck to everyone for the future.
