Pomp, Circumstance and Uncertainty

On the eve of my big drive down to Dayton for my sister's college graduation, I have been remembering my last days of college. Unlike my sister, I had already accepted a job with a firm start date. There wasnt much time to revel in the fact that leaving college would change my life forever.

It is these life changing moments that should require some form of therapy. So many emotions and not much experience dealing with them can lead to setting unrealistic expectations and the inevitable failure that soon follows. And not that graduate's lives are going to be failures but we have so many hopes and dreams upon graduation and a year or so later, the majority of them have been crushed.

"I have to do this for the next 60 years?"
"Who is going to make my dinner? I am tired and starving."
"Did I just fall asleep on the couch at 7:30 and wake myself with my own snort?"

I can almost remember the day that I realized that the benchmarks of life are few and far between. There is no more high school graduation to prepare for college. There is no more college graduation to prepare for a job. There's just your job... that you prepare for your next job? Ouch.

My parents told me that I could be anything and do anything I wanted. If I wanted to be president, I could.

They neglected to tell me that I would have to join the city council, then become a state rep and then become a senator, and then maybe I could run for president. A lifetime of work for the final destination... some details that would have been useful.

So, the sum of all of this is that no matter what the economic environment or situation, graduating from college is tough. College may be the best 4 (or 4.5 for me) years of your life but the next 4+ can be pretty shitty... so grab that diploma and get a hard hat cause life's rough. But thankfully, there's alot of us 20-somethings that TOTALLY know what you're going through.