“Finally,” they said.
It’s been more than half a year since my last writing. A hiatus I didn’t plan at all. A lot of things happen within just half a year: I completed my thesis, graduated from college — thankfully & finally, graduated from my first corporate internship, and got a job.
Things have not always been a smooth sail either. Life after college is… wow *long sigh* what a journey. I know when people talk about life after college, they will talk about “real life”. Why is it called “real life”, I’m not sure one ever knows the exact answer, for the fact the previous years and phases of life are not delusions.
“So, now that we’re graduated from college. Then what?”
“Get a job”, they said. And that’s what most people would also do. Some might take some period to rest first — a what so-called self-reward for the hard work. Some may have no time to rest, so they got to move on to the next phase. Others decided to take another path: maybe to continue their study to a higher degree, or to establish a small business of their own.
The first step after graduating pretty much is still what people expected. For example, to get a job, you have to apply to job vacancies (yes it’s in plural) first. Then you got to have a long process of requirements, which will be both physically and mentally exhausting. Some you might fail, some you might succeed. However, when it came to job hunting, nobody ever talk to us about how exhausting it is actually, or how painful it is to get rejected from, let’s say, the dream job or company. Then, after this long and full of lessons process that will toughen you, you will say “Finally…” for now that you are accepted to one job.
Now that you are accepted to a job, it’s a new phase of life. People have a lot of different preferences and considerations when it came to their chosen job, yet no one ever really told about what should we consider while choosing or pursuing a job. These job-related influencers might have said some, but are those the truth? Even after you said, “Finally…” and have a long-satisfied sigh, you might (or might not) realize the journey doesn’t stop there. You might feel fit in, or otherwise. You can even feel fit in while still contemplating whether it is the right path for you to be taken, or is there another right path for you that you were supposed to choose? The probability of questioning plenty of “what-ifs” is also high. But has anybody ever told how you might experience this cycle of confusion and how to get out of the cycle? Not all of them.
Actually, I have no exact point on what I would write on this post. Or what I expected the readers to gain. I just thought it would be nice to let these thoughts and contemplations be written, rather than to be long nested inside my head. I think this long pointless writing came after listening to “Kelana” by Tulus earlier last night when I’m on my way home.
I want to say that I’ve just realized how people will have a lot of moments in their life when they say “Finally…”, but it’s not their finals at all. The above is one of them. Not to mention another moment when we said “Finally…” even long before the above: to get accepted in our dream school, then continued to our dream college or major, or accepted to other events, competitions, or else.
Then after the above and after years of working, people will get promoted to a higher position with a higher salary and maybe compensation, with more privilege, and at that point, they will say: “Finally…”. Long, they will be old enough to retire and they might say “Finally…” either, for now they ending the eight-hours-of-weekdays-routine but on the other side are starting to build another routine of their wants.
I realized that people say “Finally…” a lot when they were about to start something new, rather than to end or finalize something. However, there will be something better or more guaranteed at what they will receive. And this “Finally…” moment also applied to numerous phases or events of human life, like a pregnant woman when she finally gets her baby out of their uterus and has to continue to raise and nurture them.
Life has infinite “Finally…” moments, both the big and worth to be celebrated ones like the above-mentioned and even the tiny moment such as to finally find your glasses screw from being missed out last night. It’s infinite, and it will always be added up along time.
These “Finally…” moments with a long sigh of satisfaction will not always be packed up with knowledge, courage, or readiness, so that people might or might not find out later that they could be suck at it, or get stuck, or have their mind changed. However, the most important thing about them is that they teach people how to live in a moment, to celebrate themselves, and to have a temporary relief before moving on to the next phase.
