It's Been At Least 22 Years Since I Was 22

It's Been At Least 22 Years Since I Was 22

Pictures posted here, messages and comments posted there, thanks to my slight, but admitted, addiction to social media it's hard not to see or read about my friends' children graduating after their four years away (or locally) at college. As I am wishing nothing but the best for all of those new "now-it's-time-to-get-to-work" college graduates, I find myself trying to recall what it felt like for me to be a new college graduate oh-so many years ago. Frankly, it's been at least (a-hem!) 22 years since I was the age of 22.

Before beginning to write this article, I posed a question to friends on Facebook, asking what advice they would give to a young college graduate entering the working world today at age 22. I got a couple of very honest, very thoughtful answers. One was from a friend in my same age group. She wrote, "Hmmmmm! Things are so different now!"

Truthfully, yes, things ARE very different now! Way back when I first entered the working world as a medical secretary/transcriptionist/office manager, the tools of my trade were the now archaic-sounding pegboard bookkeeping system and the foot pedal driven Dictaphone transcription machine. All medical secretaries/transcriptionists used carbon paper, sometimes multiple layerings, and pink wheeled erasers with whiskery green brushes to sweep the erasure crumbs away (away from multiple layerings, eek!). Because there were no Xerox machines (yes, all photocopying machines will always be known as Xerox machines to me ... and most of my generation) in every office, I remember the excitement of the delivery of my office suite's first very own photocopying machine, a toner-filled "treasure chest" of sorts that would keep me me from having to make bi-monthly trips to the office supply store, lugging that big metal bin, to run photocopies of ledger cards that I would eventually fold and stuff into special perfectly-sized windowed envelopes as patient invoices. Nowadays, "fancy" computerized bookkeeping software like Quickbooks has replaced the paper-filled pegboard bookkeeping system that I had initially relied upon...and computers that keep getting smaller and smaller and faster and faster, plus all types of ink-filled printers...have removed the need for carbon paper, erasers, ledger cards in big metal bins, and even most of the needs for Xerox machines. Fax machines and scanners....?! Yes, things ARE so different now.

Not every graduate graduates knowing exactly what they want to do with the degree they have just earned. Being asked to offer some words of advice to a new college graduate venturing out into the working world today, I would most want those 22-year-olds of today to know that they should always be ready and willing to attempt several completely different things. Don't just head down one path. Branch out! Find out what makes you happy and find a way to make it your job/work. Take me for instance, in all the days of my working life, I have never been one to say "that's not in my job description." I have always (even though at times not in my own best interest) taken on many new tasks, always wanting to remain busy and to learn new skills, using the extra work as a good learning opportunity. What better way to find out what I really did and did not like than by doing it all? If I didn't excel at something, I would either have to learn how to better achieve it or would use the experience as a learning tool that had shown me what was not my forte.

In all the many years of my working life, I can truthfully say that I have experienced fewer than 10 days that I honestly didn't "love my job." I feel very fortunate that I have always been able to find work, using the fine set of skills that I possess, at enjoyable work places, working with "good" people.

So...go forth, always be willing to branch out and do more than what is your job, take on that extra work and use it as a learning tool, find out what makes you happy and find a way to make that your job/work, make sure to always learn how to use all the newest "gadgets" (can't imagine what the future will bring!) ... and may you, too, be able to one day say, "I love my job and the people I work with!"

Congratulations to the Graduating Class of 2014!