A Graduate’s Guide to Beating the Post-Uni Blues

You’ve done it. You’ve graduated. Your loved ones are proud, you threw your cap in the air and had a graduation photo smiling cheerily with your degree certificate scroll. You never thought this day would come when you were toiling over your dissertation in the library, cursing the day you ever signed up to a full-time degree. But give it a few months, and you will be questioning how you ever took your student lifestyle for granted: Lie-ins, your friends all living within a stone’s throw away, loan and grant payments rolling in. You were living the dream. But, university doesn’t have to be a whimsical memory of the best days of your life. You have so much to look forward to. It’s onwards and upwards from here. So, if you do find yourself feeling low, here are few ways to beat the post-uni blues.

Master Moving Home

The majority of students find that they have to move home after their degree. This seems simple enough, but when you’ve been away for three to five years, you can find that moving back in with your family ends in escalating tempers and arguments reminiscent of your teens years. It’s important to avoid slipping back into your younger ways when you move back in. It is also important that your family realize that you aren’t the same teen who left for higher education.

You’ve probably got used to living alone with your habits and have experienced a new level of freedom. Moving home is all about compromise. Make sure that you are respectful of your parent’s rules and wishes, but also make sure that you are not treated like a child and are given your space. If you find that you are having problems, talk it over like an adult rather than stamping up the stairs and slamming your bedroom door.

Get a Job

Admittedly, this is more easily said than done. But many students expect to step straight into their dream graduate job and end up sitting unemployed for months. Once you have graduated, look for small, part-time work. Don’t worry if it isn’t in your ideal career field. It will be a good way to get out, settle back into your local area and get some funds in your bank account to tide you over. Search regularly for the job you want. If you did a degree in PR, get public relations vacancies up online each night at home. If you studied literature, look up whether kids in the local area need a private tutor.

Stay in Touch

If you find that you or your friends move away from your place of study, make sure that you stay in touch. It is easy to feel isolated, and a little lost once you graduate. Arrange monthly meetups and share the responsibility of traveling. Nobody likes to feel like they’re doing all of the work. Staying in touch will also allow you to see how everyone else is developing since they graduated. You will realize that most people haven’t stepped out into a high salary job and a mortgage. You’re doing just fine.

*This article was contributed.