6 Month Post-Grad Update

Hi everyone! I’ve been a little MIA on my blog this year but I’m determined to get back into it because I truly love blogging and writing for you all. For this post, I wanted to talk about how life has been since graduating in May. This is my 6 month post-grad update.

6 Month Post-Grad Update

Job

My main focus after graduating in May was obviously finding a job. After 5 months of searching, I started my first full-time job as a social media manager at a PR and marketing company. The company is based in the Los Angeles area but I’m working remote from San Diego. Remote work life is already spoiling me. I can already tell it’s going to be very hard to ever transition out of working from home. I’ve really been loving the job and I’m enjoying everything I get to work on.

If you’re post-grad and struggling to find a job still, don’t worry because you’re not alone. I applied to over 400 jobs and went through many different interviews before getting my position. It was definitely hard to go so long without getting an offer but I’m so happy with the job I have now. I truly believe everything happens for a reason and I wouldn’t trade where I’m at now for anything.

Friends

One of my worries about graduating from college was that I wasn’t going to be able to see my friends as often. Honestly, it hasn’t been as hard as I thought it was going to be.. In July, Brian and I moved from the San Diego State area to a two bedroom house with our friend Brexton. Since we don’t live with a lot of other people, we have to make an effort to hang out and see other friends.

We played in a recreational kickball league with a group of friends for about two months and it was a lot of fun. I’m not someone who normally likes to go out but we’ve gone out with friends quite a few times in the last few months and I’ve enjoyed it every time. Even just having friends at our house to watch Jeopardy and play video games is a good night in my books. Overall, I’ve been able to keep up with all of my friends from college. We’ve done so many fun things together since graduation. 

Brian and Rosie

Brian and I have our 4-year anniversary in the beginning of December. I can’t believe we’ve been dating for almost four years now. It feels like a lifetime ago when we first met in our dorm freshman year. It’s been so nice to finally live together now and truly live our lives together. Our best decision since graduation was definitely getting a dog. When we moved to our new house, we adopted a puppy and she’s so cute it hurts. Rosie’s 9 months old now and it’s crazy to see how much she’s grown since we first got her. Everyday she’s more and more comfortable around people and other dogs. Her favorite place is the dog park. She’s also a pro at ripping apart just about any toy we get for her.

Money

I know money can be a taboo subject but I do want to touch on it. It’s such an important aspect of post-grad life that's not talked about enough. I was very fortunate to have enough money saved after graduation to pay my bills without having to find a part-time job. My bank account definitely got a lot lower than I would have liked the last month or two. Now I have my job and I will have a steady income again. Now that I have a salary, I’ve built a budget for myself. I want to limit my shopping and spending and be able to save money. The holidays make it hard to save money with gifts and activities, but I’ll be sticking to my budget come January for sure.

My student loan payments will start in January and I want to make more than just the minimum payment. Since my company is small, I don’t have a retirement package so I’m going to start some kind of savings plan on my own. Thankfully, Brian is really good with finances and savings so he’ll help me figure out what is the best option for me. If you’d like my to do a separate blog post on budget and finances, let me know.

Health and Fitness

I think the areas I’ve struggled the most with since graduation are health and fitness. After all of the graduation events and travel I did this summer, I was not looking or feeling my best. In regards to fitness, we haven’t been able to get into a good routine with the gym. We were going to the gym in the evenings when we first moved here and it was going well. But we started skipping too many days each week because we were tired in the evenings and we were eating dinner so late. In the last few weeks, Brian and I have been going to the gym in the mornings and I like it a lot better because then our evenings our free to make dinner and relax. We haven’t been going to consistently but I think we’re on the right track.

I’ve been very up and down about eating healthy since getting settled into the new house. I’ll be really good about eating healthy during the week but then go out to eat a lot over the weekend. Again, with the holidays coming up, I know it’s going to be hard to eat healthy but health and fitness are truly going to be one of my main priorities over the next few months. I know I feel my best when I’m eating well and working out regularly.

Learning

I’ve always been someone who loves learning. If that makes me a nerd so be it but I knew I would need to find alternative ways to keep “learning” once I graduated. Reading has always been one of my favorite things and I’ve been doing A LOT of reading since May. Most of the books I read are romance books and I think any reading is beneficial but I want to make an effort to read more motivational or business books.

While I was searching for jobs, I was working on getting different certifications to add to my resume. I completed my Google Analytics certification which I’ve been meaning to do for awhile and I started my Google Ads certification. Since I work from home, I like having some kind of sound in the background so I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts. Some of the podcasts I listen to are just fun but I also try and listen to motivational and educational podcasts so I get more information into my day.

Travel

One of my highlights of the year is definitely how much I’ve been able to travel. In June, Brian and I went to Hawaii for a week for a graduation trip for us and for my birthday. We had such an amazing time and you can read about our trip on my blog post here.

I also got to go to the East Coast for two weeks at the end of June. I mainly got to go for my cousin’s wedding in Maryland. We also went to Philly, Washington DC and New York. I’m so glad I was able to see my family out there who I haven’t seen in a long time. It was such a good trip. Shout out to my grandma for the graduation gift. I also got to go home for a weekend in October. It was so good to see my family, even if it was only for a few days.

I’ve also been able to go on quite a few day trips or to different fun events. My best friend Amanda came to visit in July and we did a bunch of touristy things in San Diego. Plus, we decided to last minute to drive up to Disneyland for the day. I always have the best day ever at Disney. My friends and I drove up to the Rose Bowl for the UCLA vs SDSU game (#goaztecs) in September. It was great because we won! Brian and I also decided to go to one day of the KAABOO music festival. It was my first music festival and seeing Mumford and Sons was truly a life changing experience.

Upcoming Travel

The travel isn’t stopping either. Next week, I get to visit my best friend from home at school. She’s in her final semester and I finally get to visit her instead of her coming to visit me. Plus, I’m going home again for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. God bless remote life for allowing me to work from anywhere!

That is all for my 6 month post-grad update. Overall, life has been really good since graduation. I’m so happy where I’m at for being at the 6 month post-grad point. Let me know if you’d like a 1 year post-grad update in May!

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