Diary of a Young Professional (Volume 1)

5.26.2017

Dear Diary,

Being an adult sucks.

On my drive to work today, I was pulled over and got a speeding ticket.  Ugh!

I've barely been an independent adult for a month and I already got a speeding ticket! Maybe this is further proof that I need to take a step back and stop trying to force myself into being an adult.

But - let's be honest here - that stretch of highway didn't have a speed limit sign posted for miles.

Even though I was devastated by the ticket and needed my best Dolly Parton jams to keep from crying for the rest of the drive in, I didn't want to be late.  So...I didn't look at the ticket when I got it.  Instead, I stuck it in my visor and decided to deal with it later. Such an adult decision, I know.

I should probably tell my parents what happened and ask them whether they want this car back.

This black four-seater was my first real car...the car I used to learn how to drive a manual in my high school parking (I'm still sorry, Principal Adley ,for wrecking the streetlight by the rear exit during Driver's Ed).  And this car is what I used to drive my college friends around for drunken eats after partying a little too hard.

While I'll always have memories and nostalgia with my version of Old Faithful, it isn't technically my car.

I'll figure it out later - right now, it gets me to work and that's what matters.

Work isn't bad. I remember the majority of how to use the software system for production scheduling, which is a start.  And ever since my first day I've been shadowing with different members of the team to learn their names, what they do, and how my work will be affecting them.  

One familiar face was a welcome sight from my internship days: Andrew Burgess. He was like me: a former summer intern turned full-time hire. While we hadn't been super close during my internship, he did go to lunches on Fridays with a few others and me and he could relate to my situation.  I hope that nothing has changed since then.

My job is to ensure that I schedule production so that we don't run out of textiles for our customers.  Sounds easy enough, right?  But I also have to ensure that we aren't overproducing and keeping insane amounts of inventory in our warehouse. If daily forecasts change, I change the schedules - keeping in mind the difficulties of changing textile dyes, patterns, and machine tooling.  I feel like every day I'm solving a new Rubik's cube - over and over again.

The job is interesting enough, but nothing about it is from what I learned in Business School.

Would my parents be upset if they knew that they paid so much for an education that I'm barely even using? Maybe I shouldn't tell them.

Looking back, the activities surrounding my job reflect a vague representation of the Supply Chain courses I took two years ago. Kind of?

The truth is that I took my Supply Chain courses during a study abroad trip...in Europe. The coursework was in English and I passed the exams with strong marks, but I can't remember the first thing that we studied in that program!  In fact, I spent most of my time traveling to bars or iconic European cities to shop, drink, and be free from responsibilities.

Needing to come back to the U.S. to finish college was perhaps one of the most depressing realizations I've ever had, but I wouldn't change my academic world tour.

Traveling is one of my favorite hobbies now that I've gotten a taste of how much of the world there is yet to see. One of the (few) redeeming qualities of having to go to work every day is knowing that I'm earning a paycheck which can be saved to travel the world on my vacation time.

Unfortunately, I only get two weeks of paid time off for the whole year...which just seems cruel after being a college student with breaks spread out across the fall, winter, spring, and summer months. Going from three months off a year to just two weeks...talk about whiplash!

My company actually maintains its largest customer partnership with a client in Asia – Huaow – which our top Planner manages exclusively. The top Planner gets to travel every year to tour the Asian facilities across China, Japan, and Indonesia – a three-week, all expenses paid work event!  Even better: the top Planner gets a $7000 bonus at the end of the year if they can go on the Asia tour and come back with more orders for our facility.

I may just be a recent college graduate, but $7000 dollars isn't insignificant; that amount would pay off sixty speeding tickets!  If I want to go places,  I need to become great at my job and take over the Huaow account.  But there's one person in my way on the fast track to success: Holly Clark.

Holly has been with the company for four years and this was also her first job. Most girls would feel insecure just looking at her - her candy red lips flash at you when she smiles, contrasting sharply against her flawless ivory complexion. I don't think she's capable of a bad hair day; those blonde curls frame her face perfectly whether tumbling freely or pinned back into a perfect up-do.

And it seems that Holly's life is a Hollywood level of perfect: she met and fell in love with her husband while working at Chambers & Co. Now, she's a Senior Planner and her husband runs Maintenance. Their jobs don't usually have them cross paths much during the day, especially because her husband works a split shift, but I see them eating lunch together every day.

They seem awfully happy together and Holly is an excellent worker. Everyone says so.

Holly is clearly the darling of the department and - to a larger extent - the facility. I want to reach that level of popularity and prowess. She's always so busy and seems to be working hard; I hear Brian give her praise daily. I guess the first thing for me to do is figure out how to do my job exceptionally well.

Plus – I really want to go to Asia and there's no way I can afford to get there on my own anytime soon.

I've tried to talk to David about how I feel about this new work aspiration. In school I was always motivated to perform well – that's how I got so many of those honorary cords to wear at my graduation. But David...doesn't quite get it. He never went to study beyond finishing out his high school experience and he doesn't care about money like I do.

At times, David's calm disposition is a great thing for me because I'm terrible at relaxing and letting myself enjoy the space between adventures.  He happens to outshine me at appreciating a moment of relaxation.  But something deep inside me, an itch I can't quite reach, wants this bonus money.

If I'm being honest, I want to win this Asia account and bonus deal so I can kick off the life of a successful businesswoman. You know...the one I've dreamed about since becoming a Business student? If I can be young, successful, and have tons of free cash I'll have it all.  And then I'll call the shots from my vacation home!  Isn't that worth having support from my boyfriend?

I do have one really close friend in the area who has known me all through college – Sierra Knight. She didn't pursue a Business degree like me; instead, she's a newly minted elementary school teacher. While our work environments are completely different, the main elements of our transition to being working adults aren't.  She understands my ambition better than anybody I know, so at least someone can cheer for me while I try to figure out my career.

We always talked about work-life balance in classes, but I didn't understand it until after graduation. My evenings remain relatively open and I can go to bed whenever I want, but I turn into an over-caffeinated witch lady if I don't get enough sleep.  And getting too much sleep morphs me into a bloated slug (not a good look, trust me).

Taking to the Internet, bloggers' advice columns on how to blossom into adulthood leave me with too many contradictions to really be of help. Date nights with my partner are sacred – or they should be. And making time to spend with friends is another self-help writer's advice to making this transition smoothly. Yet, I also need to make time to be by myself somehow and be comfortable in solitude. I still have to work 40 hours a week and sleep and get groceries and go to the gym...how am I meant to do it all?

I think I'm toppling off of the work-life balance beam...do I get any points for that?

~Kelsey