This morning I took a drive and found myself at the beach. I stood on the brink of sand and water while the peaceful waves tumbled around my feet. I stood alone in silence as one thought kept washing back and forth in my mind. I wished I could employee one of the mighty waves to carry me across the ocean and back into the opened arms of Italy. I wished a change in my life would come.
With my school days over a year in the past, I still have yet to find my rightful place in society. It seems every corner of my life: career, stability, love... all remain stagnant. I often find the best example of my current situation to be like a tredmill. While I appear to be moving, it is only an illusion for I am going no where. My only solitude lies in the fact I am not alone in my sentiments. Many friends and fellow college graduates of mine find themselves stuck in these purgatories without the slighest glimpse of escape. I had plans. I had dreams. I dreamed of finishing school, of saving money so I could venture back to Italy for more growth and opportunity, of returning to America as an established transformation of my former self. So far... these dreams are on an indefiant hold. The economy has proven itself a God like force in this current day and age. Money and power allow its rule over every American's life. Unfortunately we college kids are the worst victims, falling hard under the economy's mighty wrath.
I like to compare a four year college education to Michelangelo's "The Last Judgement." In this extremely detailed and dark depiction of Christ's final judgement over humanity, only a select few souls are saved onto Heaven while the remainder forcibly perish in an enternity of despair. Colleges across the country constantly increase tution prices, allowing most middle class Americans to bow out of higher education. This institution has become a privelge for the elite while others fall short of its promise; the promise of a future. Most students today seek the assistance of financial aid, but face uncomfortable loans that haunt and plague their lives with no hopes of an exorcism. Like the puppets of New York's Off Broadway musical "Avenue Q" sing, "Four years of college and plenty of knowledge have earned me this useless degree!" We take these chances and journey off to college with the anticipation a remarkable job will sweep us into an intelligent, sophisticated, and diligent life. BUT with no settled employment opportunties in the near future AND this heavily hanging deficeit, I find myself asking who is better off; who really is "saved"? The high school graduate who took up a trade where money comes in regularly OR Mr./Miss College Grad who spent precious time and money on a degree they must pay off without a job or paycheck?
I am hoping this blog will acts as a beacon of hope for all of my fellow college grads out there and even some others who just want to find their place; to be settled into an adult life. I sometimes feel my money was wasted on an education I have yet to see the results of. It was not. We are only on the edge; merely scratching the surface of what we will become. When I slowly feel the bitter agnst towards my luke warm life congealing in my mind, I take a step back and say, "Things will get better... because they have to. I am not alone." You are not alone. Across this great nation thousands of accomplished students find themselves stuck in the mud with their expensive knowledge. So hold your head high. Keep treking through the flith. And know that the only direction from where we are sitting is up.
