Graduates touch netizens with their not-so-successful stories

The not-so-successful stories of two graduates from a famous university have struck a chord with netizens as their struggle for a decent living in the past five years after graduating reminded people of their own difficulties.

Meanwhile, netizens said they are warmed by their courage to share failures with the public, strong determination to chase their dreams, optimism in facing hardships and spirit of never giving up.

The graduates, from Central China Normal University in Wuhan, Hubei province, using the pseudonyms Wanwan and Chaochao, uploaded a 17-minute video on video-sharing platform Bilibili late last year about their lives over the past five years.

The video became one of the trending videos on the platform, garnering more than 5.44 million views. Clips of the video have trended on other video platforms. There were also more than 26,000 comments on the video at Bilibili, with many netizens sharing their own failures in the comments section.

"It is OK to be a failure for the time being. You can always start from the beginning as long as you do not dwell on your past mistakes," Wanwan said.

In the video, Wanwan said she has worked a dozen jobs since graduating five years ago and now only has 5,000 yuan.

She worked at a famous internet company for about half a year after graduating, and later worked at various companies.

She said the endless overtime at some technology companies has led to health problems and she also had a relationship breakup, so she decided to quit working last year and started to prepare for the national postgraduate entrance exam. However, she did not perform well in the exam.

"I felt I was at rock bottom, looking at people around me of similar age who already had enough money for a down payment on an apartment or having a child, I wondered how come they could plan their lives so well," she said.

"When you only look at yourself, it seems OK, but when you see that people around you and at similar ages are all making something out of their lives, you feel panicked."

Her roommate Chaochao got a master's degree in scriptwriting from Communication University of China but had great difficulty getting a job in the film industry due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Last year, she started to learn painting but she said she has to work part-time as a cleaner at a hotpot restaurant to support herself.

"Looking back at the past few years, it seems we have achieved nothing. We are almost 30 and from traditional evaluation standards, it is safe to say that we are complete losers," they said. "However, we also feel liberated and we are not afraid of anything else."

Wanwan said her biggest achievement last year is that she is healthier both mentally and physically, and Chaochao said she is no longer afraid of failure.

"When you can accept your failure, you will feel that it is not that bad. When working at the hotpot restaurant, my biggest realization is that I won't starve to death no matter what," Chaochao said. "There are many roads in our lives, and no matter which direction you go, it will not be a dead end."

Their alma mater, Central China Normal University, said in a WeChat post recently that the definition of success is not unchanged nor does it conform to the same standards, as long as people embrace their shortcomings and face difficulties with hard work, they will have immense possibilities.

"No one can achieve success easily. We need to be patient and believe that momentary setbacks will not lead to failure for a lifetime," the university said.