Which way are things going? Part I

I have been putting this post off for a while, mostly because I know what the conclusion is and I do not want to write about a loser who is wasting his life.

This is the first in a series of three posts I have planned. They talk about what I have worked on generally for the last 20 months and where that is taking me. Today I bring up the post-graduation activities of people I know.

What other people are doing
Over the past couple of months I have seen many people I went to school with. They are all in the midst of different and varied things. Even a year or two after graduation, these people have done a lot. For example, there is:

• The person who is working for an economist in Chicago and applying for graduate schools.


• The person who is attending law school, after a year of working through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.


• The person who is teaching elementary school with Teach for America.


• The person who is learning languages and applying for history graduate schools.


• The person who is attending law school.


• The person who is working for a chemical company and interviewing for M.D. programs.


• The person who is studying quantum computation in physics graduate school.


• The person who is working in sales analysis in San Francisco.


• The person who is working her second job after graduation and being laid off once.


• The person who worked for one of the big four firms before being laid off.


• The person who worked for an engineering firm before being laid off.


• The person who is attending law school and doing related interning.


• The person who is working for a legal aid clinic in San Francisco.


• The person who is a manager and living away from home.


• The person who is learning to run a family business.


• The person who is studying physics in graduate school (a much more prestigious school than the earlier person).

Those are just the people I saw in person recently. There is the person who will be traveling to another continent with the Peace Corps, the people who are enrolled in the seminary or otherwise studying to live an ordained vocation. There is the person who is working for a homeless non-profit through JVC, the person who is in graduate school to be a teacher. There are a few other people doing Teach for America and way too many people I know attending law school.

Then there is the person who is doing nothing like any of that. This person is not attending graduate school, has not had a single job, and has not done any kind of service or other helpful job.

This person is me.