Tuesday, April 03, 2007

"The Graduates" Fails To Make The Grade

Basically, The New York Times is having eight college seniors who hold high ranking positions at their respective college student newspapers write a blog about looking forward to the future in order to try and get some young people to read the paper (well, on their computer screens).

Without a legitimate career in journalism in sight, that would have been such a sweet gig. I would have loved to write about accruing an extra $20k in student loans for a Master's Degree that has a good chance of never paying for itself. Instead of writing optimistically about the future, I wish that someone would write about how most people fresh out of college are not only generally poor, but generally aren't thrilled with their jobs. I would love to hear about someone talking about how they're frustrated about working full-time while their friends bum it at home and enjoy a better quality of life than them. Hopefully the students blog about jobs they didn't get, facing reality versus what they expected, and disappointments as much as the triumphs of moving on to the "next big step" in their lives.

The author in the linked article basically says the same thing, thinking that it would be great to hear some very real stories instead of stories that will end up being clips to add onto a journalism resume'.

Other than a boatload of student loans, I'm pretty satisfied with my life so far, but I think I could have been pretty entertaining. I have a cool full-time job in Beverly Hills, live in pseudo-West LA, have the quintessential compact car, a supportive family, no car payments, a Nintendo Wii, good friends, a boatload of CDs, two iPods, and an HDTV. On the surface, life is pretty good and really, I can't complain.

My mom fwded me this messagea few weeks back when I couldn't really see how lucky and fortunate I was to be in my situation amidst all the confusion and uncertainty in my life. To be honest, normally, I hate forwards. But while a little lame and gramatically questionable, it made me appreciate a bad day at work and each day of my life a little bit more.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle,the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture orthe pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million people around the world.

If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment,arrest, torture, or death,you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overyour head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all.

You are so blessed in ways you may never even know.

Word to your moms, from my mom.