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Kate Evans was Chair of People and Planet during her time at the University of York, as well as the yorker eco-blogger. Since graduating last summer with a degree in History, she's worked with a charity in India, and finally got a job working for a Gloucestershire-based music charity back home. In the first of a series of blogs by University of York graduates, Kate tells the yorker what the journey's been like.
Those of us who left university last summer emerged bleary-eyed into the ‘real world’ amidst newspaper headlines assuring us that it was ‘the worst time to graduate in 25 years.’ With this in mind, as well as a desire to travel, I made a decision early on in my third year to escape the competition of the job market and apply to Development in Action (DiA) for a voluntary placement in India. As it happened, I also managed to avoid our coldest winter for about 25 years. But that was just lucky.
This is how I found myself flying half way around the world to spend five months away from my friends, family and familiar surroundings. I remember my first night, arriving at Chennai airport to a wall of people all trying to take my bags off me and drag me to their taxi. After a stressful taxi ride (my first experience of the chaos of Indian traffic) and a few miscommunications with the hostel owner, I got myself a room to sleep for the night. Despite it looking and feeling like a cell – bare concrete walls, floor and ceiling, a single lightbulb dangling precariously, and a bed with just one uncovered (stained) mattress – I was too scared to leave and find something to eat. As I folded up my jumper to make a pillow I watched a lizard crawl up the wall and thought, ‘Why could I not have gone somewhere like New York?’
Gradually life in India became less overwhelming and much more enjoyable. My placement was with Deep Griha Society, a family welfare centre serving some of the slum communities in Pune. Everyone who worked there, many who had grown up in the slums themselves, were so warm and friendly I felt very at home. Without knowing the language (I only managed to learn a few phrases of Hindi and Marathi while I was there) or any relevant technical skills, there was only so much I could contribute, but I learnt so much while I was there. And while ultimately I decided that Development work was not for me, I don’t regret the experience.
Without wanting to sound like a cliché, living and working in a developing country helped me put my own life in perspective and realise how lucky we really are. I have returned a lot more confident person, having to start from scratch somewhere else and work round all the language differences/massive amounts of bureaucracy/sexism/people trying to rip you off all the time. I met and learnt from so many wonderful inspiring people – other volunteers, travellers, and locals. Not to mention all the amazing food I ate and all the pretty clothes I came back with.
Last year, somebody told me that the first year after graduation would be really miserable, and probably one of my worst so far. It has certainly been challenging, having to cope with not living with (or very near to) my closest friends, embrace completely new experiences, and inevitably face those first few job rejections. But actually it has probably been one of the best years of my life. An adventure in India, my first ‘proper’ job (I’m a ‘Development and Marketing Assistant’) along with its associated income, and not always feeling guilty for not being in the library. Turns out that there is Life After York, after all.
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