22. Post-graduate adventure
From chronic insomnia in Vermont to Cape Cod, the UK, and California
Hello friends,
There is great value in the structure that schools and jobs provide. Fulfilling academic requirements or the needs of employers gives us a purpose. If there’s no concrete plan for what’s next at the end of a job or school graduation—and no money coming in—stress is often the result.
For me, the stress began months before college graduation.
22. Entering the wide, wide world
The triumphant look on my face at Middlebury graduation was in direct opposition to the despair I felt for months that spring. Though few people talked about mental health back then, I was likely clinically depressed as I struggled with the options of what to do after graduation. Nightly battles with insomnia led me to push myself to run long distances in hopes that it would make me tired enough to get a full night’s sleep. It didn’t always work.
My blue-collar rural background didn’t provide me enough career examples to draw from to envision a professional life. I had no idea what people did in offices all day! So I fell back on what I knew: a summer of restaurant work on Cape Cod. Josh and I rented a tiny cottage on Barleyneck Road in Orleans, just a stone’s throw from Meetinghouse Pond, an inlet of Pleasant Bay. The humid air and tidal rhythms lulled me to sleep, my depression vanishing into the summer haze of sandwich slinging and long beach runs.
Decision time
In the fall, I flew to London and bought a British Rail pass. The 3-week journey around England and Scotland didn’t solve any career problems, but I had fun exploring another country and making friends with other international travelers. Upon my return, with Josh in his final year at UMass-Amherst, I saw these options ahead: move to Boston, New York, or San Francisco, all cities I could live in without a car—because I didn’t have the money to buy one.
New York felt too big, Boston too claustrophobic (everyone asked me which Prescott I was related to—there is a blue-blood Prescott family dating back to the Revolutionary War), so San Francisco it was. There, I could be free to be whoever I wanted, and the Boudreaults were just 55 miles away in Sebastopol.
I bought a one-way plane ticket to SFO and stayed with my classmate Pam in her studio apartment just off Union Square until I found a room to rent on 29th Avenue in the Sunset district. The owner of the house was a Chinese hoarder who wouldn’t let her renters turn on the heat and wanted to limit our time in the shower. I signed up with a temp agency, and they sent me on assignments that included answering phones at corporate offices for $8 an hour. At the Pottery Barn headquarters, I organized a messy room full of samples and tracked product shipments from China on dot-matrix paper printouts. Now I knew more about what people in offices did all day!
Adventure opens the spirit
I suspect my depression that spring was a failure of imagination, partly due to lack of information (there was no Internet to help peruse career and location options; one needed a physical newspaper to read job ads). I could only see myself headed for a traditional life, working in New York or Boston, and married by 25. But my non-traditional upbringing prepared me for no such life.
I was raised on adventure, and was intoxicated by my newfound ability to create it for myself. The insomnia didn’t return even as I traveled across the UK and into San Francisco. I was LIVING—finding my way amidst all sorts of odd jobs, characters, and places.
Today, with the most recent job behind me, but in a stable location, I’m looking for adventure in other ways. Reading books to open my mind, trying out writing exercises (like the ones in
) to spark new thoughts. Maybe I’ll watch a sci-fi show, talk to a few strangers, or apply for a job in a new industry. The world around me is changing; I might as well, too.May you be blessed with the gift of new adventures in thought and experience this week.
Love,
LeeAnn
P.S. Help out a fellow Inspiration Station subscriber! Jen, who lived across the street from me in Kindergarten, was one of the first people to meet me when I landed in California in 1993. She’s looking to sublet her Santa Barbara apartment while she goes on a road adventure this summer with her musical act Lone Quail.
Have a California beach town adventure this summer!
It’s a cheerful, light-filled Santa Barbara two-bedroom apartment (one bedroom has bunk beds) and is available June 29 through mid-August (can be extended through the end of August if needed). She can be flexible on the length of your stay, from a week to two months. The apartment is just a few walkable blocks from downtown’s restaurants, cafes, and theaters—and close to the beach and scenic front country trails.
I have been there, and agree, it’s the perfect affordable summer spot, especially if you (and your family) are looking to escape a big city or oppressive heat. The average July temperature in Santa Barbara is 75-80 F. Just a 10-minute drive away lies a 50-meter lap pool at the beach that I’m dying to swim in!
Interested? You can find Jen on Instagram or reply to this email, and I’ll give you her info.
You enjoy the adventure of life so beautifully!