Not even close. For some people this may hold true but for others it seems like an entry level job may almost be comparable to a bookmark in our lives; just holding the page until you’re ready for the next chapter. My job is not the hardest job in the world and in no way do I feel like it’s a challenge. I admit that it’s easy and I love that I’m not micro-managed and have the leisure of completing my work at my own pace…but in the words of Evita “Where do (I) go from here? This isn’t where (I) intended to be…”
If there’s one thing you must know about me, I can’t settle; I can’t settle for easy and comfortable; I need the challenge and I need to know that I’m going somewhere. Right now I’m stagnant, that’s why I decided I need to change the tides of things and go back to school and re-compass my direction in life.
Now I’m not complaining, because I know that I am actually lucky to even be employed compared to many recent graduates who are currently facing a horrific job market where entry level positions are asymptotically reaching zero!
So that BA degree that holds all that promise of a good paying job is considered BS right now. On top of that, our generation of young adults has accumulated a pile of debt for the cost of the continuously increasing cost of tuition and no job. Applying for a deferment due to economic hardship after a year out of college is like a premature cry towards bankruptcy. It’s like promising a loan shark you’ll get the money, but after a year of looking for it, you’re still at a lost as to what else to do. So what do we all do? Borrow more money and go back to school to see if we can become more educated to figure out where all that money is- digging ourselves an even deeper hole. It sounds cynical but it’s the sad reality.
On the bright side, Senator Carl Levin said it best, "The real question is- are we going to have a huge deficit with investment or a huge deficit without investment." Of course he is referring to Obama’s Stimulus Plan but I can say that we can apply this to our education as well- which is definitely an investment.
So my question lies here…the government right now is trying to mitigate everyone’s problems from saving the children and teenagers’ schools from budget cuts, to lowering interest rates for the couples in their 30s trying to be first time home buyers, to saving the seniors’ from losing their Social Security pensions; from assisting the poor in the lower income bracket to helping the rich (aka financial companies and banks and their wealthy CEOs) with bailouts.
What happened to us? The struggling college graduates in our twenties? We are the people to be saved since we are the future of today’s society! We are barely starting our lives in the real world but we are slowly dissolving in a quicksand of debt with no helping hands from employers who can aid us out of it. What is to become of my generation who still believes in the American Dream: you reap what you sow? We borrowed money to afford all the right equipment to plow a field assuming once the spring comes we will have much to harvest, but we are hit with Armageddon so what do we do now??? Ok I’m getting carried away…it’s still too early in the morning…
Nonetheless, I feel like something needs to be done in our sector of education…lowering tuition- sure, but how about prolonging the subsidized deferment timeframe or maybe some bailout money to waive a chunk of our debt from an education that held so much promise? It’s true today that a Bachelor’s degree is the equivalent of a High School degree and you are on equal playing grounds with everyone else. I understand now that just like the US dollar, our education system can also go through the cycles of inflation…so does this mean if you don’t get your PhD in 2050, you’re considered educationally stunted? Anyways that’s off topic, but either way we need help from the big guy…
Are you there Obama? It’s me Natalie…
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I was supposed to pay off this satin couture after I completed my studies...  Nat |
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