I have just two more school days before Thanksgiving break officially begins. If you’ve been reading the blog for a bit then you probably are a bit tired of me harping over my excitement for Thanksgiving. In all honesty, in the past, it hasn’t meant quite as much to me. That’s not to say that I haven’t appreciated it and looked forward to it, but this year that excitement is a bit different. With about 6 months under my belt in the real world Thanksgiving has been on my mind since the beginning since it will serve as the first true break I’ll have since starting my job as a teacher. After a quick break right after graduation to a summer spent in grad school and less than a week at home (in Fairhope) I’ve felt like I’ve been almost forced into adjusting all on my own to life in Greenville. In many ways that has been good, but adjusting to the “real world” has come with its fair share of challenges and realizations about how great college really is.
Even during college I had the mindset that I didn’t necessarily want college to be my “best four years.” Instead I’d like to think that the year I am in currently can be one of the best of my life (too optimistic?). Now that I’m finished with college and have moved on perse I think that the phrase “you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone” can actually mean something (so can absence makes the heart grow fonder…). For all of you in college currently, I’m going to say this (with fear of sounding like your parents), but enjoy it while you can. There were so many small conveniences that I took for granted at the time that I would certainly appreciate more now that I don’t experience them all the time.
During a discussion I had with my mentor from Furman recently she summed up my thoughts about my adjustment to the real world perfectly. I have had the pleasure of getting to know her last year as my supervisor during my teaching practicum and then this year as my mentor so she knows a good bit about my work ethic, involvement on campus in college, and ability as a student so at this point she knows me pretty well. During a phone conversation a couple of weeks ago, she asked me whether or not getting acclimated to the real world, everything new happening in my life, and especially teaching was the first time I’ve really struggled at anything. As ridiculous as it sounds, that is exactly how I’ve been feeling. I’ve always been able to impact outcomes by coming into situations overly prepared, but no matter how prepared I am there is a lot I can’t control when it comes to teaching and that has been hard. Unknowns must not really be my thing. I’ve come to realize during my short stint so far in the real world that there are definitely some aspects that take getting adjusted to. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to living in the real world not to mention the balance of being a student, teacher, blogger, and regular human being all at once and adjusting to unknowns must be part of that process. In an attempt to help y’all here are some of the things that I didn’t quite expect.
You are Expected to Take Care of Everyone Else and No One is Taking Care of You.
Maybe this is because I’m a teacher at a school with a lot of parent involvement, but I’m sure many of you can relate in other professions as well. My kids come first, then their parents, and then way down on the daily to-do list is where I fall. It’s called a job for a reason, but in college at least, you have friends and professors around you checking in or noticing when you’re absent or seem a bit off. Now that I’m establishing myself in Greenville outside of Furman I’ve realized that the only person taking care of me is well, me. I’ve always been independent and my parents are so supportive that this isn’t to discount them but I’m kind of on my own. You expect this after graduation but adjusting to it is a different story. After living on campus for four years this has taken some time to get used to. I know in order to make the adjustment easier I need to start prioritizing myself a little bit more but let’s just say that my students and their parents can fill a lot of time without me moving myself further up the list. I am so lucky to share my apartment with two friends and have other friends nearby in our complex that I am not completely on my own, but as for taking care of myself that could definitely be more than the one person job that it currently is.
Making Friends Takes Effort.
To those of you who went somewhere completely new after graduation with no one you know I am truly impressed. Like I said, it is so nice to have started out in the real world in the same place I attended college with many of familiar faces doing the same thing here. That’s a bit of a double edged sword since it hasn’t really encouraged us to branch out too much. Most of the friends we’ve made happen to be other Furman grads who we knew of but may not have necessarily known at Furman. Creative, I know. Come the weekend most of us are so exhausted from teaching all week that going out and socializing is the absolute last thing we want to do. This has not made our circle grow much and that’s definitely something I’d like to work on in the semester to come.
Life is Expensive.
A job in the real world means that you finally get to make some money granted you end up spending a lot of it too. I was not oblivious to the fact that life is expensive but when you start to pay for where you live and the utilities you use it can be really eye opening. I keep my room and bathroom in my apartment so clean because of that which hopefully won’t give my parents any ideas of how me to keep my room clean when I come home for holidays. Purchasing groceries, furnishing an apartment, and small daily expenses can really add. As a teacher you definitely don’t end up making much (especially since with Furman’s program we get paid less for our first semester) and while I wish I could say I’m saving a lot life is expensive.
Everyday is a Learning Experience.
I’ve heard this before but teaching opened my eyes to this in a very different way. Since I never truly know what to expect I have a lot to learn each and every day. I am never sure what my kids will say or do so I can’t plan ahead as much as I’d like, but it does make it so that no two days are identical.
Cooking 3 Meals a Day for Yourself is A Lot of Work.
I was complaining on the phone to my parents at the beginning of the summer at the fact that I would have to be cooking myself three meals each day since I would have to be packing my lunch. They so humbly reminded me that packing a lunch is not something special to the profession of teaching but instead is something that most people have to do. I got to the point at the beginning of the school year where I was so tired when I got home that microwaving food seemed like a lot of work. The process of planning out what I want to make, shopping for it, and then making it nearly felt like an all day event. Over time my feelings toward this have become less dramatic and there is one brand that really helped with that.
Enter Shipt. If you haven’t heard of Shipt, it’s a grocery delivery service that started in Birmingham, Alabama that sends shoppers to the store of your choice for you where they shop the list you created and deliver it directly to your door. You can shop online or using an app and I couldn’t be more thrilled that Shipt made its way to Greenville. They currently work with three different grocery stores in the area and the convenience of having groceries delivered is a dream. Now I am not quite as worn down by the time I actually start cooking.
Placing my first order was so easy and gave me the opportunity to try a new to me grocery store, Lidl, that I drive past every day way too intimidated by the full parking lot (since it’s new) to stop in. Since I tend to go to the store after work I have also made much better decisions by not wandering around the store aimlessly while hungry and adding just about anything that looks tasty to my cart. You’re also able to choose when you want your groceries delivered which certainly fits with my schedule being all over the place.
While there is a fee to join, any order you place after joining over $35 is delivered directly to you for free. Prices aren’t increased because of this convenience and the app gives you the option to note items you order each week to save you even more time. You can try your first two weeks free with a $15 shopping credit here to try it before you commit! I was able to get both groceries and general supplies like toothpaste and razors all from the convenience of my couch, which is a major win in my book.
While there is a fee to join, any order you place after joining over $35 is delivered directly to you for free. Prices aren’t increased because of this convenience and the app gives you the option to note items you order each week to save you even more time. You can try your first two weeks free with a $15 shopping credit here to try it before you commit! I was able to get both groceries and general supplies like toothpaste and razors all from the convenience of my couch, which is a major win in my book.
My Shipt Shopper was also amazing. She texted me while shopping to see if there was anything else I wanted to add to my order or substitute if an item was unavailable. She let me know when she was headed my way and was so friendly when she arrived. We chatted as if we had known each other for ages and she answered any questions I had about my first Shipt shopping experience. I would love to run into her shopping at the grocery store but at this point I have no reason to go to the store so I can just hope she will be my Shipt shopper again soon. For those of you putting off your thanksgiving prep save yourself some time and energy by shopping with Shipt!
For those of you also experiencing the real world for the first time I am sure you can resonate with some of these things. Fortunately, everyone has to start somewhere and eventually the real world will become my new normal especially with discoveries like Shipt to better ease me into it.
Thank you to Shipt for sponsoring this post.
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