Next month, it will be officially a year since I graduated from Curry College.

As I am writing this, I am thinking of my friends still at Curry, specifically the seniors. The ones that are filling out graduate school applications or scheduling job interviews while preparing for finals and trying to get as much socializing in as they can before they have to say goodbye to all their friends. Biting their nails in both anticipation and fear at their impending graduation.

At this time last year, I was doing that as well. I had just gotten turned down for an assistant teaching job in Boston I was certain I would get. I had decided to put off grad school for another year because I had no idea what I wanted to study. I was trying to stay on top of all my responsibilities while maintaining a social life. Somehow, I did it.

I didn’t get a job right out of college, like I had hoped. Then again, it proved to be for the best: that summer, I got a blood clot in my right leg. For weeks, I could barely walk from the couch to the bathroom. Once I was better, I got back to the job hunt, but I was stuck in retail. For barely four months, I worked at Macy’s in the women’s shoe department until the store I was working at closed.

Then, in March, I applied to a temp agency, KNF&T. They met with me, and within a week, my amazing consultant, Lili, found me two job opportunities. One of them was a job as a temporary data entry assistant at the Boston Public Library in the Rare Books Department.

I went in for an interview at Boston Public Library (BPL) and two hours later, as I was on the train home, Lili called me. The librarians at BPL offered me the job.

Naturally, I took it.

It’s been two weeks since I officially started working at the Boston Public Library. But I love it. The aisles I work in are narrow, but I share breathing space with books published in the 1500s. I’m working with a variety of people who have taught me there are more to libraries than librarians and bookshelves. I have found I am most comfortable and confident in a library setting.

That is why I have finally come to the conclusion I want to pursue Library Science along with Creative Writing. My top choice at the moment is Simmons College, where I can study both at the same time.

To those of you graduating, don’t get too discouraged. OK, so you don’t get your dream job or a job within the field you spent four years busting your ass studying. You might have to work retail for awhile, like I did and like how so many others were forced to after saying goodbye to college.

You might be beating yourself up because you didn’t choose a “practical” major like Nursing, Education, or Engineering. Newsflash: not everyone is cut out to be a nurse or a teacher or an engineer. You studied what you loved and that is what is important.

To those of you who went through the whole college process expecting a Bachelor’s degree in whatever guarantees you a steady income, you should have gone to technical school, to be a plumber or an electrician. Because those jobs will always be guaranteed.

And, for the record, the economy sucks right now. If a major store like Macy’s closing down branches across the country is not enough of an indicator for you, then I don’t know what is.

My main advice is to stay positive and be patient. Your chance will come. Mine did, a year later, but now I can move forward knowing where I want to go and how I want to get there.

You will too.