I am a stereotype. I am a recent college graduate who works at Starbucks. Part of my head is shaved. I have a record player. Zoey Deschanel is my hero. Even worse, I want to be a writer. Unfortunately for my wallet and I, writing doesn’t pay the bills. Which means in the meantime, I sling coffee and scrub toilets for hourly wage plus tips. And boy, let me tell you, it can suck. But sometimes, it’s okay. In a perfect world, I could do two things I love: writing and doing peoples’ hair. If not hair, then working at a local coffee shop. But unfortunately, local coffee shops don’t have the same benefits as a corporate company. And I don’t have the time or the money to go to cosmetology school. Besides, I have a degree, so I need to think of bigger and better things, right? You would think. As it is, I am a shift supervisor at a corporate company, with a shrinking grace period where, on a resume, the longer I stay at my current job post-graduation, the worse it will look to future employers.

My parents and boyfriend nag—I say nag, but I know they mean well—about looking for a different job. Starting a “career,” getting a “real” job. Yeah, it would be the bee’s knees if I made even $30,000 a year. That would be like living in the lap of luxury for me. But as it is, I live below the poverty line working customer service. To tell you the truth, I have no immediate desire to leave. It could be laziness, it could be a lack of enthusiasm for starting another job hunt. I’ve looked for other jobs. At one point, I had interviews. Obviously, I never got a call back, but after the initial butt hurt of getting rejected, I felt a sense of relief. Perhaps I’ve become complacent, but for now, I have no desire to look for a career. Big girl jobs seem so…boring. It’s not that sitting in a large, open, sterile space seems boring. It sounds awesome, actually. What gets me is that what I have found so far doesn’t appeal.

Chances are, I will continue to write piddly short blurbs for social media and feel guilty for not doing more with myself. I know that I’m not supposed to have everything figured out right now, but feeling directionless sucks. If I want to change this, I need to gain some insight. Over the next several weeks, I want to do so by talking with other graduates who seem to have a general idea of what they want to do. I’ll share my thoughts on our discussion and any advice they offer to me or other people who feel the same way that I do. I hope that doing so will not only help me but others as well.