The young adult's guide to growing up, working hard and becoming someone

I've been feeling quite down lately and I am not too sure if it is the rainy weather of this colourful autumn, or the fact that I miss my family and far away friends so dearly...I am not even sure if it is from the nostalgic feeling of the fast approaching Graduation and the official and so dreaded end of my university life.

 If I can be perfectly honest, I must sheepishly admit that I don't know how not to be a student. How do I act? Must I transform over night into a highly respectable professional? Will there be a Tooth Fairy lookalike, wearing a suit, dropping by one night while I'll be fast asleep, who will leave a corrected version of my CV under my pillow? Will I even have to pay for this service or will she leave me a pay check and the message 'Congratulations! You are now a fully grown and capable woman who can start climbing the social and corporate ladder'?

 For the last 15 years I have created a personal identity, always wearing my Converse (not the same pair - before I gross you out), with my backpack and my overfilled pencil-case - fully equipped with different sized and shaped colourful post its and highlighters - always on the verge of colour coding not only my study material but my personal life as well. This was all in my routine, a perfectly rehearsed graceful dance of life, which started with a few childish steps, but which has developed over the years into a way of life that I could perfectly perform with my eyes shut. ...but now what?

 Today, however, I am the proud owner of an extremely expensive piece of paper stating that I do indeed have a degree, that I am fully qualified to work in my particular field of interest and that anybody in their right mind should employ me as I am young and hardworking, ready for a challenge and prepared to put in the amount of work required to start my career and prove myself as a 'professional'.

 This was all in my 'young adult's guide to growing up, working hard and becoming someone' which has been imprinted in my brain starting with my parents as a little child, re-emphasized and highlighted by my school years and harshly tattooed into my brain by my University tutors.

 All sounding colourful and optimistic so far, I have recently been hit by the cruel reality, shown by my esteemed University colleagues, that this seems to be a just a myth, an intensely circulated urban legend and that most graduates are still struggling to find a simple work place, not to mention the stepping stone to their future careers.

 All this being said, I must stress the fact that I am not complaining about the lack of jobs available on the market today, nor the struggle young people need to go thorough to find their path in life.

 My big question is how do you know exactly what you want to do with your life? I was 16 when I decided that I want to follow an advertising career and focused exclusively in getting a degree in advertising management. But this leads me back to my previous point...

 I did all this, I've taken it step by step and I finally got the degree... Now what?

A good deed never goes ... unpunished?!

For the past three years, I have been living in this lovely little UK city, Canterbury, where nothing dangerous ever happens, where everybody smiles on a daily basis when they see you on the street, where people happily stop and give directions and where shop assistants always return your change if mistakenly you have overpaid.

Funny saying all this, as a short while ago, panic struck our peaceful city, streets being cordoned and blocked by the police and different areas had been evacuated, all due to suspicious packages found in the area.

Well, my story is not directly related to these incidents, to thanking the police for the protection they offer us each day, nor to criticizing the menacing packages for disrupting our daily flow of activities. My story begins at the end of that day, when, in the evening,  I was the one stumbling across a 'suspicious package'.

As I was making my way home, I happened to notice a black laptop bag, randomly left next to one of the cars parked in front of my flat. After intense examination from a safe distance, I convinced myself that I needed to take a closer look.

With each step I took closer to the bag, I started thinking of all events that happened throughout the day and how this bag could potentially harm my community - my home away from home - and the people I have grown to love so dearly; constantly reminding me how essential it was for this bag to be checked, as if it truly had been a suspicious package, it should have been reported to the police before anything dangerous could happen, or if it actually was a laptop as it seemed, I would be the one collecting it and returning it to the rightful owner, before someone else got  the chance to disappear with it.

This is where I should probably stress that I don't remember stealing anything in my entire life and that I guide my life on a simple motto: If you can do a good deed and help someone, you ought to, no matter what. However, what life taught me in return, is that in eight out of ten cases, your good deed will never go unnoticed ...and implicitly, unpunished.

Whilst supervising the bag  - but still not being courageous enough to physically touch it - I called the police and reported having found a random laptop bag, providing all details they requested from me. I was asked to remove the bag from the street, keep it in my apartment over night and drop it off at the station the next morning. 

Once more, guided by my motto, which needs to be obeyed in all circumstances with extremely strict leeway (sometimes even I think I am going a bit too far with this), I remember being pretty pleased with myself, knowing that someone will be able to collect their precious misplaced laptop from the police station, having lost nothing, with the exception of (probably) a good night's sleep.

Approximately one hour later to the event, my phone started ringing - a police officer informed me that they have traced the owner and that he was waiting for me downstairs in the car park to collect his lost laptop. I locked my door and rapidly went to meet the owner with a massive content smile on my face, excitedly waiting to see how his face will light up in satisfaction at the sight of his precious piece of technology.

What actually had happened instead, was that as I came out into the car park, he quickly grabbed the bag and swiftly took one step back. By this time, my massive smile turned into one raised eyebrow and a sheepishly tiny confused smile, trying to understand what the hell was going on...Why wasn't he happy and thankful to me for going through the trouble of returning the bag?!

Then, it all came clear when he told me how he had seen me from his apartment window taking his laptop and how he had called the police to report me for stealing his laptop!

Luckily for me, my first move when finding the 'suspicious package' was to call the police and ask for advice on what they would like me to do. This way, when the laptop's owner called, they provided the reference number and assured him that I was indeed a 'goodie' who's intent was to return the laptop and not to start teasing with a childish 'finders keepers, losers weepers'...which I might have had second thoughts on after finding out that he reported me!!! 

The most confusing part of this whole day, is that after he got his laptop back, he insisted on repaying me for my kindness and offered me a bottle of wine. Again, obsessed with my motto, I asked him not to worry about repaying me directly, but one day, when he will have the possibility of helping someone, to go for it , and this way, maybe one day, we will provoke a chain reaction towards acts of kindness and eventually will make this world a little bit better.

In my young naivety, this strategy could only lead to one possible outcome - making the world a better place! In his vast experience, he was convinced that I had declined the wine as I was a Jehovah's Witness trying to indoctrinate him! 

So first he calls me a thief and then a religious fanatic!  Oh, what a day!

This whole experience was just a self reassurance that I will always live my life by my rules and always see the good parts in any situation. Worst case scenario, my obsession towards random acts of kindness could possibly brighten someone's day, right? And hopefully, there are others out there who also believe in random acts of kindness and together we will form a chain reaction one day...

Oh, and the bottle of wine I was offered as a small token of appreciation...is now in my fridge!...who can say no to alcohol, anyway?