Life after university

Last November I was so lucky to be able to go back to the UK and visit all my university friends and graduate properly with a silly hat and everything. 

After my stay there however I realized that I and most of my friends were all dealing with the hard reality of life – or that is, life after university. 

The trouble of starting a generic job (if you even found one) that has nothing to do with your degree but still trying to find your place in life, dealing with the depression of leaving university is really hard. The fear of the huge future that you were supposed to figure out, the successful job you are supposed to find, the great life you are meaning to be leading right now! That should all happen straight after university? Right? So very wrong! 

I have felt this gap before in my life, since the Icelandic school system is different but then it’s mainly a question of which school to choose afterwards. But now I am in the real deal. Life, the universe and everything. 

Universities should be doing a better job preparing us for the real world. All we get are “get a good portfolio and apply for everything.” Well that is not good enough. Where do we start, what should we apply for? What if we start to freelance, what if we get a job, how do I make a contract? How do I set up payments? How do I even get that first job?

The sad truth is that I learned more about the business side of art by listening to Christ Oatley’s podcast and The Paperwing podcast (http://oatleyacademy.com/paper-wings-show/)  that I did in my entire 2 years of illustration and 1 year of digital arts. 

To make matters even harder for myself I decided to move back to Iceland were the market is so tiny, that I have no idea how to get going. All I know is that I want to do art but it’s hard. It’s also weird meeting my non-art friends, their lives seem to have moved so much faster, many with good jobs, apartments, kids and I’m still here just going “I just want to draw”. 

Life can really be complicated, and I’m sure my fellow art related friends struggle with the same things. But I guess the only thing to do is like my mom says: “take one day at a time and don’t overthink the future.”