Life as a Nigerian Graduate

From the time an individual gains admission into the university, up until the time said individual graduates, the joy that comes with each hurdle one surpasses is the driving force that leads to completion. You have dreams of entering the labour market and excelling, though you always have the understanding that to get to the top, you must start at the bottom. Therefore, the aim to become a career lady or man is one that cannot be accompanied by unreasonable expectations. In the same vein, one realises that they have become an adult and the responsibility of providing for your parents and/or younger siblings fall on you, and the ultimate dream of settling down and starting your own family is automatically activated.

All these feelings and high hopes may be really encouraging, and more often than not it works out beautifully well for some, however, for others, the ride may not be so smooth, and many lose themselves in the process. Some people struggle at the beginning and later become stable, others have it smooth from the onset as though scripted perfectly, while others struggle hard and end up doing unbefitting jobs considering the course they studied or the excellent grade they graduated with.

From the vantage point of an undergraduate, life after graduation can appear like an exciting phase, one that you cannot wait to live however when you finally get to that stage, you may discover some unexpected truths. The initial freedom may feel exhilarating but soon after, some graduates battle with feeling lost or overwhelmed by an unknown future.

A fresh graduate who through no fault of theirs, was born into a family of moderate capital or limited resources and has no “big uncle/ aunty” may, in some cases, find life after graduation really overwhelming because the positive expectation is that you transition in no time from being an unemployed undergraduate into a working-class lady or man and working most preferably in your field of study. If this expectation is not achieved as soon as hoped for, then for many, the worry starts to creep in.

The state of the economy also may be another factor and the reality of an alarming rate of unemployment in the country may hit you leaving you to ponder about the number of individuals joining the labour market because basically every week, people are graduating from different universities or completing courses in other institutions so, one is left thinking to himself/ herself if there really is a space for them?

The smart graduates however, push hard; start applying for a job or graduate trainee position because the aim is to start from somewhere or start checking for extra courses to do to boost their CVs pending when their hard work from school finally pays off. Some try to learn other skills so that if the white collar doesn’t work at least there would be something else to fall back on.

Whatever the struggle may be after graduation, everyone hopes to succeed. And at the end of life itself, everybody goes back to their creator. “This life is a spoon”.