Post Graduation Blues
Happy World Mental Health Day! 🧠
Today I wanted to take a moment to stop and spread a bit of self love. 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year which especially affects the youth. In this day and age there are so many factors affecting the youth which can cause stress, anxiety and depression. This can be small things such as small changes in your life or big things that really sit with you pulling you down.
Mental Health wasn't always great for me because I'm terrible at coping with my emotions. I'm very much an over thinker, over stresser and have tendencies of feeling lonely. I wanted to write about this today, on this day, because it's something that is very close to me especially at this time in my life due to a lot of changes that have been happening. I graduated from Fashion Marketing and Branding at NTU in the summer and have already seen a lot of my fellow graduates talk about the reality of graduating. I am the type of person that had my whole life planned out - graduate, get a full time job in something I love and then at some point in my life start freelancing. I've been surrounded by freelancers for the past couple of years so it seemed the natural choice but not for where I'm at right now. My whole life has flipped and freelancing has fallen into my lap and I've just been going with it. Since then I've had a lot of things that have made me doubt myself and frankly made me feel very low. I had no idea that this is what life in like in the 'real world'. There's so much negativity, speaking behind people's backs and not telling it as it is. I had these high expectations of what the working world is like after graduating and frankly, it's overwhelming.
Since graduating I've also gone to countless interviews for full time positions and I've just got 'you don't have enough experience' or 'you don't fit in this role'. It's like no-one wants to give you a chance. A lot of my fellow graduates have spoken about this, thanks Alice for your post, it definitely made me feel like it's not just me. When I was at uni I had so much confidence in myself and what I can do. I've done countless unpaid internships, worked since I was 16 and constantly try and push myself taking on every possible opportunity. My mum always tells me off for this because I know that I take on too much but I always think 'of course I can do it, why wouldn't I?' I guess it just puts you down when things don't work out the way you expected.
Today I'm taking some time out for myself today, starting by a Slow Yoga session at the Coco Flow Studio. I've been to a few of the sessions recently and Sally creates such a relaxed atmosphere which is just what I need today. I'm also going for a lunch date with my boyfriend followed by some chilling at home. What do you do for self care? I'd love to hear your stories, experiences and any tips or advice for coping ❤️