Hi, everybody. This is my first time posting so sorry if I make any mistakes, but I'd really appreciate any guidance from the community.
I'm 21 years old. For background, I grew up in poverty in an extremely abusive household, and was then put into the foster care system. From a young age, I was diagnosed with a slew of chronic mental and physical health problems. Up until a couple of years ago, I never had any plans for my future because I didn't think I'd make it very far. When I aged out of the foster care system, I thought I'd just get married early and work a crappy retail job until I died.
A couple of years ago the government put an initiative into place to make university free for previous foster children, and to provide financial assistance while studying. I was pushed to take advantage of the program, and I started university. I was doing general studies and failed a bunch of courses, until I was recommended to apply to a 'prestigious' writing program at another university.
I got in, and I started to get really passionate about my program. I got straight 'A's, got to know the professors, and have been published in a few places. I volunteer as an Editor of a literary journal - all in all, I started to turn my life around and find some success. I didn't worry much about my future because I was just surprised I'd gotten as far as I had.
I graduate in a year and a half, and it's just settled in that I have no specific career in mind and that my degree isn't really valuable on the job market. I know that there are some viable careers with my degree, but I feel like you need to be a 'go-getter' sort of person to get them. I'm a shy, quiet person - not to mention, a lot of my chronic health issues have gotten worse, which means I want a more quiet and stable job that won't make my health deteriorate even more.
I only have experience working retail and some low-level professional writing experience here and there. The only thing I have going for me is that over the past few years I've managed to save about $60,000. I'm very thrifty, and I've always worked multiple jobs; not having student debt has allowed me to save all the money I don't spend on rent or food.
I don't have family to fall back on, or professional connections. My only safety net is the money I've saved. So my question is, how can I use my savings to set up a sustainable life after I've graduated? If anybody here has a fine arts/humanities degree, I'd really appreciate hearing what path you took and how long it was before finding a stable career. Thank you so much in advance for any advice that anybody can give me.
Submitted May 12, 2019 at 05:23PM by pruuuuu http://bit.ly/2HhbwUA
