I took my time through the game, did fates quests etc. I just hit 50 last night, but I still have quite a bit of storyline to go, we just passed garuda. Problem now is that all my story line quests give 12k+ exp, but I have no option but to let it go to waste since I don't have another character level 44+

I should be able to convert it to merit points, bank it for another job, or gold or even letting it built toward 51, anything is better than just clicking "complete" and saying goodbye to 12k exp!! sucks.