I took my last exam, delayed working a week because of a sprained thumb, and dived right into the workplace in the same city in which I'd gone to school. I don't regret it at all.

MG, you're an awesome and incredible example.

My first job was nice in that I could pay the bills and eat while searching for a better job.

I wish I could have done something before diving right into the job market. But I graduated deep in debt, and for quite a while there it only got deeper. At 38 I'm still not quite finished digging my way out.

I, too, wish I had gone out and done things! That is when you have freedom.

I stayed local and worked at a grocery store while looking for a job. Through a friend I got an office job a a local theatre, where I worked for a craxy person and learned a lot.

3 year later I got fired, quit theatre, had a nervous breakdown and moved in with my mom, and I haven't been the same since (although I am quite happy now).

Anyway, I would suggest NOT getting too bogged down by having a job/place to live. This is the time to travel, and to sleep on the floor of various friends houses and to generally not be safe. As an older person, I am much more set in my ways and unwilling to take risks, so I would say-- take risks now

This of course, is just my experience, so YBMV.

Skimming the thread very quickly, after my last post, made me think that a bunch of y'all graduated into the dominatrix job market.

Quite a number of us seem to have graduated into the stripper job market, so you're not that far off.

I was a newspaper intern the summer after my junior year and freelanced for the paper through my senior year. I graduated on a Wednesday and started work full-time at the paper the following Monday. The idea of bumming around Europe sounds wonderful, and definitely something to do when you're young, but I had no money and living at home was not an option. I've still been blessed with pretty much being able to write and design for a living for all these years.

I took a year off before I graduated from college to work in a law firm and then went back to finish the undergrad degree and the law school degree simultaneously. This was back in the days when the computer systems didn't talk to each other, so I just enrolled in both places and no one questioned me about it for at least a year. By then it was too late for them to tell me it was impossible. After law school I went to grad school and met Perkins.

All the best to Matt & his mom & family {{{{{}}}}}.

He's a pimp that way. I suspect he's got some kind of hellmouth there, only instead of evil, it draws all the Buffistas.

The distinction being?

The same woman never saw or smelled a joint until university. You get into your little bubble, you reinforce the walls, and you just bob along.

That's a big bubble.

No, not so much.