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(Editor’s Note: Senior Kate Hicks shares her impressions of the annual Real World , which brings dozens of alumni back to campus to assist seniors in their career exploration.)

The night before Real World began, my housemates and I sat in our living room catching up and talking about the uncertain months ahead. All our lives, we’ve had answers to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And yet, with our May 15 graduation looming, some of us are suddenly at a loss for what to say.

I’m nervous about graduating without a job, but I’m somewhat lost when I think about looking for one. So I was especially looking forward to meeting alumni and hearing their advice, hoping they might ease my fears and offer a better idea of what to expect while searching for jobs.

During her keynote address, actress and writer Carrie Clifford ’93 shared just such a reassuring, yet honest, message. She told her story, emphasizing the importance of finding a job you can be passionate about and working hard to reach career goals.

Discussing the weekend’s prevailing theme of networking, she said, “Maintain your connections and see where they take you.” She cited as an example an audition for a director who had also attended 51�Թ���; the link led to a job and a new professional relationship.

Later, at a panel on Creative Networking and Job Searching, Cindy Dietzel ’84 reiterated the importance of seniors reaching out to alums, noting that they can help us, and moreover would simply love to meet us.

“Keep in touch with us – we love to hear about what’s happening at 51�Թ���,” she said. She encouraged us to think of these relationships as friendships first, pointing out that networking doesn’t necessarily have to have a specific end in mind.

Saturday, we had the option to attend three career-oriented panels. One of the most memorable and encouraging pieces of advice I took from Real World came from Gus Coldebella ’91, at the Government and Public Policy panel, about our first jobs.

“All this job has to be is a job; if you love it, you can excel at it, and if you hate it, you have learned something very important,” he said. “But even if it’s a job you don’t love, you still have to do it. You want to be seen as having done it well.”

The reminders that I don’t have to know exactly what I’m going to do after 51�Թ���, and that a large and welcoming community of alumni awaits to help us, made me feel so much more optimistic and confident about the “real world.”

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