This Person Is Crazy

I just found a page that gives advice to college graduates, which would be fine if it was helpful at all, but instead I found it unintentionally humorous.

The first decision to make after you graduate is pretty simple. What do you want to do with your life? Life after college can be difficult if you do not have a direction in which you want to go. Hopefully you want to pursue a career choice that coincides with your college major. After deciding what career path you want to follow, put together a plan and get started!

What? Deciding what to do with your life is simple?  That’s a news flash to me.  As far as I knew, people change careers at least once or twice in their briefcase-toting lives (probably an understatement).  And it’s not because they loved their job so much they wanted to get a new one.

First of all, it would not be my “first decision” to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life.  That’s too much to ask of someone.  That’s like asking a monkey to tell us the meaning of life.  It’s great if you ARE one of those people who has always known what you wanted to do, but if you’re not, don’t sweat it.  Just find a way to be happy and support yourself.

Secondly, this Generation Y/ Millenial generation has some different economic trends to consider than previous generations.  We can’t ignore the fact that we ARE in a recession.  If you’ve looked at the classifieds lately, you’ll notice that most of the jobs listed are for administrative assistants, nurses, child care providers, and drivers.  Three months ago, the classifieds were spotted with a few editing, graphic arts, marketing, and advertising jobs in addition to the above.  Now, my guess is that employers are filling those positions internally in order to save money.  Not to mention that a $2 gallon of gas is a thing of the past. 

Secondly, our generation is going to be responsible for our own retirement.  Unlike our grandparents’ generation, our generation is going to have to save our own money by investing in our company’s 401k or 403b or an IRA…or inheriting it all from some great-uncle Alfred…or marrying really rich (has anyone seen the Prince of Monaco around lately?!).  Social Security, who? is how it’s all going to go down.

Lastly, I just wanted to rant about how some Life After College advice givers think that giving the most obvious advice is really going to help a person, when I think they’re really missing the point as to why this time is so difficult for so many people.  Understandably, I get that my words won’t give some sort of “light bulb” advice to my readers. I write so that other people know that there’s one other person out there who admits that this world is a crazy-ass place. 

I trust that my readers comprehend the fact that after college, figuring out what you want to do with your life would be ideal.  But it’s not simple.  Some people go their entire lives not knowing what they want to do.  Which isn’t necessarily reassuring, but at least I’m writing to let you know that we’re two confused liberal arts leftovers together, and not writing about “if you follow these six simple steps, you will not even be remotely disenchanted with the real world.  And you will get free cookies every day.  And the clouds will rain honey.”  Although, I’d rather it rained pancakes.  Like the book “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatball.”

-The Boxcar Children