Diploma Diaries

Have you recently graduated from college? Or maybe you've been out for a few years. No matter how many years you've been in the real world, one thing is for certain: Post-college life is NO cake walk.

Well, U Chic is dishing up this very advice in a new guidebook to life after college! Titled "Diploma Diaries," this tell-all book shares uplifting stories that are chock-full of hard-won advice from girls from around the country.

"Diploma Diaries" is hitting Amazon and bookstores nationwide on Wednesday!

The contributors for our newest book, "Diploma Diaries," are throwing their very own launch parties across the nation to celebrate the book coming out on Wednesday!

Here's a look at where the celebrations are taking place.

Not every girl is born a Carrie Bradshaw in the realm of dating. Young professionals, myself included, live in the five-year plan mindset, leaving little to no room to account for their own Mr. Big.

With the pressures of finding a job right fresh from graduation, we are now forced to sow oats early or risk the trials and tribulations of the dating scene post-grad style. But all is not lost! Learning how to live and love in post-grad world is becoming easier than applying for a job.

For so long, social media has played a large role on the college campus. It’s the way to keep tabs on old friends, to make that important shift from “it’s complicated” to “official” and to properly document four years of studious work in 140 characters or less. But as students shift their focus from grassy quad to cubicles, so has the use for social media.

When taking on a career in a big city, you learn quickly it’s all about compromises when it comes to achieving your goals.

No greater compromise exists in the world than life of a commuter. The ups and downs of becoming a commuter are plentiful, but knowing what lays ahead of you on the road map to commuter life is crucial and important when making that decision to go full-time transporter.

I first visited New York City when I was 10 years old. Clutching my father’s hand as we maneuvered the boroughs’ busy streets, I eagerly took in the sounds, sights and smells of what is so distinctly New York.

Like a naive suitor swept off his feet, I was enamored by the culture and commotion of the city. The vendors with their sweet, candied almonds; the suited investment bankers mingling with pushy Chinese salesmen; disgruntled cab drivers totting Versace-wearing yuppies; and the loud, hot, overcrowded trains, like fire-breathing dragons pummeling through the ground ... I loved it all!

In college, as in high school, I volunteered with various mentoring and tutoring organizations. By participating in each one, I was exposed to distinct forms of intervention in kids’ lives. Some simply aimed to give at-risk kids a positive role model to interact with and look up to. Others were more focused in their goals, gauging the academic and emotional progress students made through the duration of the program. And each time I saw a spark of excitement flash across the eyes of a youngster that realized the doors her new knowledge would open, I caught fire anew.

I graduated with a master’s degree from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. I had come from an incredibly small town in Wisconsin and was in my late 30's and single. My family thought I was crazy, but I had always dreamed of living in NYC, and I was determined to make it happen. Once I found out I was accepted, I worked harder than I ever had to save money, even to the point of selling my possessions.

While getting to New York was hard, staying in New York after graduation was much harder.