At church last weekend, I was conversing with an older woman about my experience at Baker University.
Instinctively, she asked the basic question every, college student gets, asked, ‘what’s your major?’ And without skipping a beat, she let me know the scarcity of jobs in my field.
And while I could have argued every internship, job offer or opportunity I’ve taken advantage of, she was right.
The harsh reality of spending four to six years, or maybe more, I don’t judge, in college, only to work the same 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job for the next 35 to 40 years of our lives, hit me harder than a blind man walking off a cliff.
College isn’t as valuable as it used to be.
College degrees are the new high school diplomas; everybody has one.
But to our “16 and Pregnant” society, even that is harder to obtain these days.
I hear Burger King now requires letters of recommendation and a 3.5 GPA to become a certified patty-flipper.
Who knew the all-nighters and 25-page papers would amount to this?
In all seriousness, while college is all that and a bag of chips, don’t expect employers to be waiting at your doorstep for you to present them with your hard-earned degree of classes that your sister and cousin kept files and copies of every last test from.
No matter how much professors threaten an F on a paper, 75 percent of students will start their assignment the night before or on the morning of the due date.
And when we dominate the paper and pass with flying colors, our egos are padded and positively reinforced with the fact that we are still capable of getting away with our high school tendencies.
So, yes, prestigious law firm, give me a deadline where more than a grade is on the line, because I can handle it.
And by the time your student loans are paid off and you’ve found a job where you only halfway hate your boss, and will settle for the condescending relationships and subordination of experienced co-workers, then it will be time to start saving up for retirement.
Which, depending on how many years you decided to spend in college, will probably start when your first gray hair sprouts.
How convenient.
On a positive note, if I can scrape one up, there is still a lot of time and outside factors that will determine your destiny and future.
In the meantime, lemonade stands are known to be recession-proof, and I could use a glass right now.
Your move.