Students, imagine this: You just graduated with your bachelor’s degree from GC. You have spent the last four years staying up until 2 a.m. finishing assignments and making midnight runs to Cook Out with your roommates.
Now, what do you do? No more 8 a.m. classes, no more Midnight Breakfast at the MAX, no more study sessions at Blackbird and no more stress about the paper that was due last Tuesday.
Where do we go after college? Do we go back to our own hometown? Do we travel to a different state? Maybe we live in a new big city?
For four years, your biggest concern was what you and your friends were going to do on a Friday night and how much coffee is too much coffee for 8 p.m. Now, you are wondering where you are going to get a real job and how you are going to pay bills and student loans, all while trying to live life to the fullest.
The first thing that you have to figure out is where you see yourself living for the next couple of years as you are navigating your way through life beyond college. Are you more enticed by staying in a small town or living the city life?
“A small town, because it’s just more of what I am used to, and I have never really been a city girl,” said Kaitlyn Taylor, a freshman management major. “My dad is in the Army, so I moved around a lot, which has made me want to settle into a smaller town and put down roots.”
Should we stick to our roots and stay with the small-town lifestyle? I love the idea of remaining in a little town, like the one I grew up in or like Milledgeville, where we are now. However, I think that once I graduate college, I will go a different route rather than staying where I am. I think it is important to get uncomfortable. I am not saying living in a small town after college is a bad option by any means; I think it would be great, but I personally would like to look into city life first.
Here are a few reasons why a city would be better for post-grad plans: less job competition, a better work-life balance, more affordable rent and meeting new people.
“A certain density of educated workers also makes a place attractive for businesses, which create jobs that attract more talented people, and so forth,” said Jeff Guo at The Washington Post. “So it’s not hard to see why cities fret over talent, which tends to go hand-in-hand with growth and prosperity.”
It is just a fact that educated workers tend to have greater opportunities in cities. Employers are often looking to hire people who have at least a four-year degree. With the abundancy of hiring employers in a citythere is less job competition too. If the point of going to college is to have a better opportunity to get a job, why not go where there are the most job opportunities?
When I say it is more enticing to live in a city post-college, I am not talking about a big city, like New York City, unless that just has exactly what you are looking for. I mean a smaller city; a little country city, like Charlotte, North Carolina. You get the city experience while still getting that small(ish) town charm we so love. Plenty of people want to say that they would love to live in a small town, but there is only so much that a small town can offer young people who have big dreams.
However, there is no need to plant roots just yet. We are young! We are exploring the world and ourselves as adults! We are still searching for our passions! Unless you are married or have a job already lined up, I personally do not see why living in the city would not be anything but a great experience.
