Burn-out and Dissatisfaction

I've been reading this girl's blog online because she writes in an entertaining way about her life, which is very different from my own. I worked with this girl for a semester at the student newspaper about four years ago. I haven't really talked to her or hung out with her since then. She graduated a semester early like I did, but unlike me, she landed a high paying job immediately after college and owns a condo in Dupont Circle. She's two years younger than me and OWNS an apartment. Unlike me she waited to get pets until after she could afford the vet bills. She can afford to go shopping for new clothes. I can't even pay my rent or any other bill for that matter on time; I'm still waiting on my loan to come in. Yet with all the money she has and a live-in boyfriend she complains that her work isn't challenging enough and that her job somehow goes against her value system. She'd rather teach group fitness classes than consult.

I had heard about this kind of thing before I graduated from college, having friends or acquaintences who take whatever is the highest paying job that they can get after college and then feel unsatisfied. I have been in school for almost six years and will come out with two B.A.s feeling poor and burnt out. I still have no idea why I've gone to school for so long only to graduate without an advanced degree...well I mean I know that part of it was a professor discouraging me from applying to a creative writing program, and part of it was me not wanting an advanced English degree because I HATE theory, and of course I was too lazy to take the GREs. Still, I'm incredibly burnt out with a double time case of senoritis.

I had another professor who once told me that the first few years right after college graduation are the hardest, figuring out who your friends are or making new friends if you've moved, trying to figure out who you are and what you want, just generally feeling lonely..."It doesn't really get easier until you're in your 30s," she had said, but it was the "HARDEST around 23-25". Something to look forward to.