The graduating Class of 2009 is without a doubt entering a different world than the generation before us. Mention words like "economy" and "unemployment," and there is no need for an explanation.
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers 60 percent of all graduates return home from school unemployed. The average job search, which takes six months, is expected to take at least three months longer this year.
And while the graduating class of 2009 is the largest in a decade, employers say they will hire 22 percent fewer college grads than last year. To top that off, in February the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 1.9 million unemployed college graduates.
So here we are, one of the largest classes graduating in our nation's history, graduating amidst one of the worst economic crises in our nation's history. Sigh.
It may be hard to see the silver lining. It is so easy, almost satisfying, to curse Wall Street, the government, even our birth year for the economy that we find ourselves job-hunting in.
Negative news and pitiful public attitudes don't help much either. A simple Google search for "The Class of 2009" brings up headlines like, "Who will hire the Class of 2009?" and "The Class of '09 Curse."
Not to repeat a broken record but it is essential to our success to look on the bright side, and yes, a bright side exists.
Most importantly, we may not have jobs, but we have college degrees. Who cares what they are in! We earned our degrees and nobody can ever take that away from us.
In April, the unemployment rate for people ages 20 to 24 was 13.5 percent higher for those who only had a high school diploma. So if nothing else, we should consider ourselves 13.5 percent luckier because we attended and finished college.
So now we have to accept that we are not alone as jobless graduates who are probably (read: unenthusiastically) moving back in with our parents.
Still, nothing seems more depressing than applying for jobs from the parents' couch while watching "Making the Band 4" reruns. This would be the time to stop drowning our post-college life sorrows in MTV nonsense and do something positive and productive.
Appreciating what we accomplished during our time at SSU is instrumental in welcoming what we wish to achieve in the future.
The economy is different and therefore job hunting is different. Stop reading "different" and "bad."
Without jumping right into a full-time, business-as-usual job, we have time to ask ourselves important and often overlooked questions.
What is it that we really want to do? Why are we doing what we are doing? What is the point? What type of future do we want to create for ourselves?
Unlike the generation before us, we have the time to ask ourselves what it is we are most passionate about and plunge head first into achieving that goal.
Self-examination and self-exploration are far more valuable than we've been raised to believe.
The old guys who taught us that success is all about the school from which you receive your degree and the six-figure job you land immediately afterwards, happen to be the same CEO's filing for bankruptcy and begging for government bailouts. Maybe it would be smart to ignore advice from them.
After graduation we are free to discover what it is we want to learn, not what we must learn to barely pass a midterm.
Throughout our time here at SSU, we learned the formulas and equations necessary to pass classes, discovered where to find the best burrito in Rohnert Park and mastered the Cotati Crawl.
So how did most of us miss the lesson on patience? To navigate our way through the choppy waters of this economy, we must practice patience and perseverance.
Graduation, often viewed as an ending, really should be celebrated as a beginning. We've worked so hard for the past 18 or so years to reach this moment.
No matter what it took for us to show up on May 23 or what may happen to us after that day, we should be proud of ourselves, thankful to those who helped us along the way and excited for what's to come.
And if what many of us are looking for does not arrive immediately, one day we will understand that the lessons learned through this time of discovery and experimentation were worth more than any job we could have landed.
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