As a second semester junior, I am feeling pressure to figure out the next move after graduating. Though I am trying to hold on to my college life for as long as I can, every time I see an extended family member, they feel a need to ask me what I have planned.
If there has been one thing that has made me feel better about my lack of plans after college, it’s Girls.
Lena Dunham’s Girls is focused on a group of college graduates figuring out how to transition into adulthood. Each one of the girls has no clear plan, and are refusing to settle for a job that would provide them with a steady salary. The girls don’t believe in working for the purpose of having a job; they want to do something they care about. While smart in theory, this mentality leaves the group working odd jobs, sometimes struggling to make ends meet while living in New York City.
I started Girls because I needed something funny and light to watch in between the stress of class and the workload I tend to put off. While I got exactly that, I also got one of the best depictions of the complexity of female friendships after college. I was not expecting to devote so much time so quickly to the show, but the incredibly witty humor and insane situations the girls find themselves in suck the audience in.
Watching the show relieved a lot of my anxiety about needing to figure out my next move since none of the characters in the show were close to having their life together. None of the characters in the show were perfect; half of them I didn’t really like. With summer approaching and the LinkedIn posts accumulating with my high school and college peers posting about their amazing summer internships, it feels like I am running out of time to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing. Girls is a reminder that there is no exact age you are supposed to have everything figured out, and there is still plenty of time after college to make mistakes and grow.