It’s early May, and the bands are playing while the senior classes at thousands of universities walk down stunning lawns, walkways, and stages decked with floral arrangements and lined with distinguished professors to begin their coveted graduation ceremonies. Some of them sit there, listening to the commencement speakers, thinking about how increased networking has landed them their new job. But most of them are thinking about how they are about to face a much tougher world than they had expected last August — let alone four years ago.
Like most of my peers and those graduating soon, I was always taught that the “American Dream” meant greater opportunity, which began with higher education. Boy did I get a reality check when my senior year of college sped past and I was left back at home with no job. I felt like a total failure for about four months, which is the longest I have gone without a job since I was 16.
My story had a happy ending, as did the stories of others in my graduating class. Some work in the Capitol, some work for various universities, and some work for various branches of the government. But there were many more who graduated my same year who were left with jobs that had absolutely nothing to do with their majors, like those who became waiters or those who turned to retail. I know an art history major who works at Old Navy. He feels like a total failure. Morgan Oliver, the subject of an NPR exposé, had a 3.82 GPA, a degree in art, entertainment, and media management, and now walks dogs to pay a portion of her bills because she can’t find a job in her field. She feels like a total failure.
However well or bad off we were in 2008, I am even more concerned with the class of 2009. They are the first graduating class of this recession, with no concrete answers about what to do. Not all of them can rely on their parents, and in a year most of them will be left without the safety cushion of their parents’ health insurance plans.
Kiama Anthony was born and raised in Gordonsville, Virginia, a small town in rural central Virginia. A senior sociology major, she says she “couldn’t have graduated at a worse time.” She is competing for entry-level jobs with others who have more job experience and higher levels of education. Kiama says she “honestly cannot afford not to work after graduation.” Plenty of people in her class are pursuing grad school or the Peace Corps because they can’t think of anything else to do after graduation. College graduates between the ages of 20 and 24 had a 7.7 percent unemployment rate in January, but where is the uproar among my peers? Where are the answers?
Recently, in an address about the educational system in America, President Obama said, “Education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, it is a prerequisite.””According to the president, “Of the thirty fastest growing occupations in America, half require a Bachelor’s degree or more.” With the globalization of the workforce, my generation might witness a time when an undergraduate degree equals the same level of education we presently associate with a high school diploma. President Obama says that “by 2016, four out of every ten new jobs will require at least some advanced education or training,” but I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens much sooner than expected.
My friends and I always talk about this dawn of a new day. I call it the “state of limbo.” As cliché as it sounds, this is a peculiar time in our lives. It’s not just because we are graduating or recent graduates but rather that we are being thrust into a “real world” that we may not be prepared for and that will be ever more frustrating during these times. We might go through some hardships that our older brothers and sisters or friends didn’t have to witness until they were much older. Just prepare for the unexpected and don’t give up, because something will come along.
