Give advice to a university graduate

[Goodnews]

How do I start this?

Cliffnotes at the bottom.

Perhaps something about myself and my background...

I am 20 years old and will be graduating next spring with a mechanical and materials engineering degree, which is really the problem. All my life, I had people tell me what to do, all of which they were all in agreement with. Go to elementary school, go to high school, get good grades, then go to university. It began in my senior year in high school, my father was an engineer in the Philippines (sadly the Canadian government said that education said it wasn't good enough), so I spoke to him what the perks of engineering were and all of which he listed seemed like good things. However, I was still unsure of what to do, regardless I figured I might as well keep my options open and take the engineering high school prerequisites. Now, because of my indecision I was doing just around average, which became the topic between my high school counselor and I. She told me my marks weren't good enough and she doesn't think I can do it. Being the cocky 17 year old I was, I refused to let anyone tell me what I can and can't do. Thus, out of spite I dug my feet in and worked hard to bring my average up to acceptable levels.

Well now here I am wondering what the hell I am to do. I have moved away from home to go to school, I have lost contact with my high school circle of friends, I have racked up about 40k (CDN) in loans and I know I have to work. My concerns are not of relationships with significant others (I believe that kind of thing just happens and is out of my control), but I do value the friendships I have now.

In terms of my activity here at 2p2, I found out about this in freshman year and was captivated by the idea of living by my wits and playing poker for a living. I have worked at my game (though not as much as I would have liked) and have come to the realization that I could never beat the medium stakes online, and have resigned myself to taking down whatever home game and small stakes the casinos offer. I have lurked in the strategy forums for the majority of the time, but in the past year, I have been gravitating in the BBV4L forum alot more, simply for entertainment. I do however have great respect for those of you in OOT and in El D's forums.

I would like to do some soul searching, but my debt (which my parents co-signed for) keeps me tied down, and I feel as if I should get that out of the way asap before it cripples me in the future.

So if any of you could grace me with your advice, and perhaps some sort of perspective as to how I should go about working on my career in the real world I would appreciate in amounts I could never quantify.

To the forum, is there any regrets you have when you first finished college/university? Things you wish someone told you, or something you should have done first.

The questions floating around right now are...

Should I work some crappy job for a few months then travel for a period of time? But what about my loan and financial obligations?

Should I work and build my career? But what if I get tied down? And I still feel like there are plenty of things for me to discover, and what if I miss out?

If I do build my career, where do I go? I don't want to leave the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) for the convenience of home, but I also want to go to new places. I want to leave home but not my friends.

Cliffnotes: University graduate wants advice as what would be the best thing to do after graduating.