7 Months Later: Life after College in a Pandemic (with a degree in Sport Management)

So let’s chat… Normally I try to share my insights on the sports world, but today I thought I’d share some of those thoughts in conjunction with what is currently happening in our world. If this is the first time you’re reading anything I’ve written, let me tell you a bit about myself. Hi! I’m Alexis and I recently graduated from the University of Connecticut in December with a Bachelor of Science in Sport Management. Hockey is my world. I’ve been living it since I was little and grew up with the Nashville Predators. When it came time for me to decide what I wanted to do with my life I hands down knew that hockey was something I was passionate about. Although I never played, the atmosphere was something that electrified me. I wanted THAT feeling for the rest of my life. When I went to college, I simply wanted to work in hockey and get my degree in sport management. It never occurred to me that I as a woman may be seen as an outsider; someone who needed to be invited in instead of someone who just automatically had a seat at the table. It never occurred to me that by the end of my college career I would be deeply passionate about creating seats at the table for not just women but so many others that weren’t always invited before like me. This started to become my mission: to create a space where other young girls knew that they too could have a career just like mine.

And then March 2020 hit. At that point, I had moved home to Nashville. I had been job searching for about eight months. While I had had my fair share of interviews, the right fit for me was not there yet. Now, let me tell you about my biggest fear all through college. Don’t get me wrong, I loved everything about my time in the sport management department. I loved all of my professors and the conversations we had in classes and the diverse group of people I was able to be surrounded with that I can now call some of my greatest friends. But there would be this small part of me every now and again that would pipe up in the back of my mind. “If the world were to end tomorrow you can’t save any lives,” it’d say. “You don’t know how to fix a broken arm. You don’t know how to perform surgery. You don’t know how to make a shelter or forage for food.” I can’t tell you why this happened, but I knew somewhere deep down that I picked a career path that was one of the first things that would go if the world were to end.

And then, three months after I graduated that biggest fear was realized. March Madness was cancelled. The NBA and NHL ceased operations. The MLB put on hold spring training and the opening of their seasons. The Olympics were postponed. And there I was with a degree and a passion for something that disappeared overnight. I felt empty. I didn’t know how to pivot like so many other people in my industry were doing. I was fresh out of college and didn’t have a full-time job. I would look through LinkedIn and just see the countless people getting furloughed or laid off in sports. Job postings stopped. I shut down. I had graduated early in order to get myself out in the industry sooner. As someone who has excelled in school her whole life, I had grown tired of it and longed for my “school” to turn in to that of the workplace. I didn’t want to go back to get my MBA. I didn’t want to go back to get a law degree. I felt shameful about reaching out to my contacts in the industry who were also trying to deal with their leagues not being in play. I truly didn’t know what to do.

Now, I’d like to tell you that here I am in August and I know what to do now. I’d like to tell you there’s a happy ending to this story. And maybe one day there will be. But for now, I’m still stuck. I have been searching for a job for well over a year. I have had my degree from UConn for seven months now. I’m still living at home. I’m still working part time in a restaurant serving tables. But we are still in a pandemic. Sports may have returned for this season, but the future is still so unknown. So, if you’ve made it this far in my story thank you for reading. But maybe you’re like me and you work in sports and you still don’t know how to pivot. Maybe you’re like me and you don’t want to give up your dream. Maybe you’re like me and you just want to throw your hands up in surrender but think about the next generation of little girls growing up and know you must fight harder for them. Whatever the case may be, I hope we keep going. I hope one day we look back and think, “I’m so much stronger because of this.” I don’t have the answer. You may not have the answer. But for me, sports are the answer. Getting up every day excited to live a fulfilling life is the answer. It is not going to be an easy journey. It may be another eight months of unknown. But I will get there. The job will come. The life I want to build for myself will come. And for now, I’ll keep watching hockey waiting for the day I’m back in the arena doing the thing I love most in the world.