As a freshman, I never thought that I would be one of those people who were worried about graduating. I have always been the kind of person who knows what I want. I know what my interests are, what classes I want to take, what I want to major in, what organizations I want to belong to and what I want to be “when I grow up.”
Even in high school, some of my classmates had a tough time figuring out which classes to take, what to do after high school, what college to go to and what to major in.
It has been the same in college. Some students that I have known have even dropped out after finishing all of the prerequisites in the general core because they just did not know what they wanted to study.
I have never understood what that must be like. I have just always known the answer to those questions and been very confident in what I wanted.
Several times, however, I would later find out that the original school I chose or class I took was an unfortunate mistake, but that never deterred my confidence. I suppose that has been very lucky for me.
I just knew that when I graduated I would be able to accomplish whatever I wanted to if I set my mind to it. I could get the job I wanted, a high-paying one that sent me travelling all over the world making a difference in peoples’ lives.
Somewhere in the last year, things have changed without any warning to me. Since this is my fifth year as an undergrad, many people that I know who are my age just graduated. As a result, I have begun to quietly panic.
Most of the recent graduates that I know do not have the job that they expected to find after earning a degree. I am not talking about their dream job, just a job that is in anyway related to the field in which they spent the last four years studying.
A few went to grad school, but the rest are working in the same job category that they were working part-time in while still in school last year. I am not talking about a glamorous job, or even a crappy one. These jobs are far below that, the hairnet-quality job. A few graduates that I know are actually completely unemployed. Some of these students were making very high grades while in college, and were leaders in their organizations.
I am freaking out now because I am afraid that quite possibly this is the fate that awaits me in just a few short months. As soon as May comes around, I will no longer be on my parents’ health insurance. I already pay all of my own bills, so that is pretty much all that will change in that department. But the addition of a health insurance bill is not something my barely past minimum wage job will be able to cover.
To make things even bleaker, every person that works at the hotel I work at has a second or even third job to make ends meet. I do have a sad little savings account, but six months after graduation, the student loans from my first year of college at a ridiculously expensive private school will begin collecting. Of course, when taking out loans students actually expect to be gainfully employed.
I believe that my qualifications are impressive. I am bilingual, an editor, the president of one club and vice president of another, and I will have two degrees when I graduate. I should be confident in my job-finding quest. But I really believe that all of my friends who are still working at hardly over minimum wage-paying jobs are highly-qualified, go-getter type people as well.
So what is the class of 2008, and now the class of 2009, going to do after graduation? Unless you are going into the medical field, I suppose I will see you at Wal-Mart, the Holiday Inn or maybe even Target.

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