Nicole Kirwan

Graduations, Commemorations, Celebrations, Affirmations, Insouciance. TW: vague mention of trauma  Lately, all I’ve been seeing on my LinkedIn (I know, corporate eye-roll – I’m on the job hunt, let me at it) is a peppering of celebratory posts about new positions and posts like “after 1.5 years I finally got to graduate!”. I swear it seems to be a constant feed of that silly little emoji-style animation and the confetti cannon that accompanies all “new position” posts and photos of caps in flight and gowns galore.  This sounds like the beginning of a very sour and spiteful post, but I promise it’s not.  Today marks the day that my formal graduation ceremony was scheduled. I’m not there. Today I am collecting my job seekers allowance and attending my morning appointment with my career guidance counsellor. After this, I will visit my local coffee shop, say hi to my housemate who works there and the guys behind the bar, and start my final preparations for an interview and pr...

 The Unemployment Chronicles and My Vaulting Ambition You read it right. Unemployment. The blog went quiet soon after its launch because I got a shock after recovering from Covid. For the first time in my life, I was laid off. I almost made it to the ripe age of 25 without ever being laid off, but here we are. Thankfully, it had nothing to do with my performance and only the fact that within the service industry, your labour becomes quite disposable. I, unfortunately, was the last in, and first out, as cuts were being made. It is tough, and it’s startling to be thrown into uncertainty, but I decided to treat it as a kick up the arse. A kick up the arse to really start believing in myself, believing in my abilities, my skills, and my experience. I am finally pursuing something pertaining to my college degrees *Mom & Dad sigh in relief* , but also pertaining to what I really want . That’s hard to decide, and I by no means believe it to be set in stone, or at all certain, ...