is our value only measured by a 9-to-5?
Amidst this in-between, transitional period between graduation and employment, it's been eye-opening witnessing how a person's "value" is measured. There seems to be an unspoken equation between "usefulness" and "employment" (particularly corporate employment).
The moment you step outside this rigid framework - whether to rest, create, or simply rethink your direction - the majority begins to treat your time as idle, your existence useless. It's as if the only legitimate way to contribute is through a 9-5 paycheck.
It's unsettling realizing how deeply that idea runs. When I was studying, it was easy to neatly categorize me within a narrative: working towards a good future. But now that I've graduated, this certainty in their perception falters. There's a quiet tension in their questions: So, what are you doing now? As if the absence of a company name beside my own renders my life directionless, aimless.
Our culture seems to fear stillness, I think. We rush to fill silence with productivity, to justify our existence through output. I myself I am a victim of this mindset. A subtle guilt trails me, as if unemployment is some sort of personal failing. But why do we equate stillness with stagnation? What if it's reflection, realignment?
Contribution shouldn't be synonymous with ceaseless doing. The truest kind of value might not be about how much we produce, but how consciously we exist, how present we are in our own lives.
Like your average graduate, I'm still searching for a job. Still, this in-between space has challenged me to untangle who I am from what I do, to test if I can still hold a sense of self-worth without a title (student, employee, whatever) attached to my name. Honestly, it feels deeply uncomfortable, but it's also a small act of rebellion: a refusal to feed the capitalistic machinery that equates being with producing.