What does someone who just graduated from university and who currently has no employment do?
Do they actively search for employment? Work on building additional skills to improve their skillsets? Or maybe choose to focus on personal betterment such as achieving that long-awaited "glow up" they kept picturing in their head throughout their university study sessions?
Well, if you are someone like me, the answer is:
Stalk anyone and everyone in your life via social media.
To be fair, I did not slip into this rabbit hole just out of the blue. I downloaded LinkedIn, the site known for making connections and searching for employment. I uploaded my newly made CV and sent it out to multiple companies. I did it one day, then the next, and then the day after that. I did it until I forgot how long it had been since I had started.
Days blurred together, each one marked by the rhythmic sound of keyboard clicks and the constant refreshing of my inbox. Rejection emails trickled in, each one a reminder that my dream job was still out of reach. The more I scrolled, the more my curiosity grew, and it demanded to be fed.
So, out of curiosity,
pure curiosity,
I decided to look up one of my old classmates, someone I had not been in contact with for over five years.
What was supposed to be a quick scroll turned into a deep dive into their account.
Scrolling through their seemingly never-ending skill set list and then their experiences—a full three whole positions—a sharp contrast to my lack of experience.
My curiosity wasn’t satisfied with just one profile. What was supposed to be one classmate turned into my entire classroom. Profile after profile, I compared myself to everyone. Their achievements felt like a spotlight shining on my shortcomings.
What started out as a website I thought I would use to make connections with other people was now being turned into a website where the only connections that were occurring were me and the negative voice that told me I was a failure.
Each scroll, each click, each profile visit
only amplified that voice.
That voice has never been louder.
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