Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. – Mark Twain

Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way of what I promised myself would be a weekly-updated blog. Alas, I’ve been distracted by life, death, and the new Pokemon X/Y Nintendo 3DS games that I fell into the lazy trap and stopped reading for a number of weeks (Oh dear lord, it’s been around a month now..) So my dear reader, whoever you may be, thank you for being patient with me and I hope this recap of (my less-than-average life) the past few weeks will provide you with something to kill your time for the next 5 minutes or so… depending on how fast you read.

Now, I try not to use too many quotes and become one of those philosophical, serious bloggers, comtemplating on why humans exist, what’s our purpose in life, how do we become happy, and all those other fun questions but since I haven’t written a blog entry in awhile, this seemed appropriate (and relevant, I promise). Now, where do I start? For anyone who’s read any of my reviews, you may or may not have noticed that I don’t usually delve into details of a story’s plot, nor do I quote from the books. It’s pretty straight forward and mostly because I personally think that if you’re not interested in a synopsis, a brief impression of the characters and basic outline of the plot then don’t read it. It’s up to your discretion after all. If I think its really good, then I’ll say its really good. If I think its a mediocre read, then that’s my own opinion. I like to keep things simple and more often than not many of my reviews may sound similar because it is rather hard to find a story plot that actually surprises me. I do however, have great appreciation and admiration for those serious Reviewers and Bloggers that actively blog/review/support Indie book authors. It takes a lot of time and dedication to comb through a book to pick out scenes/quotes and describe/review those scenes at length. To those individuals, I put the book reviewing community to shame, haha. Sorry for being uber lazy, and kudos to everyone who can consistently keep up with all the cover reveals, announcements, book releases and signing events that happen.

When I last blogged, I had lost a very dear friend of mine. A friend I had known since childhood, and even now I am still grieving and accepting that my friend left this world having lived a fulfilling life full of love and friendship. Its been hard, accepting that life happens and the sun still rises and sets without me being able to text or call her like I used to. We used to talk about our goals and plans for after university, especially with our impending post-graduation job hunting. So here I was, trying not to dwell on the sadness of losing my friend, but instead.. celebrating the life she led and honouring that by not giving in to despair. I moved on with my day-to-day life and continued my job search. Fought with my boyfriend many times over my state of unemployment, broke my foundation of communication and I became lost. I wasn’t getting very far with my job search, landing very few interviews despite the 20ish jobs I applied to each week. If you’re ever feeling overwhelmed, don’t bottle in your stress. I had lost my stress outlet and harboured many negative feelings about myself and my situation. Essentially I had lost confidence in myself.

Now, you’re probably wondering what does any of this have to do with anything. Well, like I said at the beginning of this post, this is mostly a recap of what’s happened to me in the past few weeks. Let’s just say that the period of post-graduation is an extremely important transition period. Don’t let anyone tell you how to live your life. Don’t let anyone tell you what you should be doing or why you should be doing this or that. Do what you feel is right. After college/university, if you want to travel, then travel. Make it happen. If you want to take a break for a few months, do that. Take a break, find a hobby. If you want to go back to school for a post-grad degree then do that. Don’t let anyone dictate what you should be doing. If you don’t know what you want to do, then take those months after graduation to find out what you like or what you don’t like. It’s not an easy thing to do because you’ll likely have people telling you every possible thing you could/should be doing after graduation. Forget them. I don’t care if they went through the same thing, they are your boyfriend, your mother, your father, whatever. At the end of the day, you make your decisions and you set your own path. Do what you think is right.

For me, I had a hard time deciding how to communicate with the people I care about because I have a tendency to want to please people. When I don’t have results, I don’t tell people things unless I have results. I thought I had become more outgoing and assertive over the since (since my shy teenage years at least), but I’m still very much an introvert. There a lot of books, articles, and peer pressure that will make you believe that there’s something wrong with you if you haven’t landed a job right after graduation but trust me, it’s all perception. People only post things on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter when they have something they want the world to see, praise them for, or comment on. (That’s probably why there’s so many selfies and food pix.) Don’t worry though, everyone’s struggling as much as you are. I was definitely struggling. I didn’t think I’d ever land a full-time job but I did and if you put in the effort, you can find what you’re looking for too. Whether its that vacation, new hobby, or that elusive entry-level job (which requires 3-5 years of experience which you don’t have because you’re a new-grad)… You will find it.  If you want it enough, you’ll work for it and with a little luck, you’ll get it.

These past few weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster and now that its finally over, I can go back to blogging (hopefully weekly again!) and reviewing. As an aside, for anyone who actually reads my reviews, you can look forward to my review of Maya Banks’ Fever trilogy! (3 books, yay!)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween, Thanksgiving (Canadian & American coming up), and look out for my Maya Banks reviews in the next few days.

Cheers,
M.