DOUBTS, DENIAL, AND DIPLOMAS

DegreeWorks? Damn, I sure hope it does!

Words by Russell Tom Sun Art by Marisa Goldberg

“I have no idea what I am going to do,” is the resounding remark I keep hearing from my friends and peers as the countdown to graduation shrinks with each passing day. Graduation for the class of 2023 has not been met with the optimism and excitement previous generations have experienced. After all, we are in the middle of an economic recession with corporations conducting mass layoffs, all the while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage on. That hope for a bright future the class of 2023 had when we stepped on this campus in August of 2019 has been dimmed to a bleak and burnt-out light. It doesn’t help that we’re being pressured and driven to apply to jobs that pay way below what we’re worth, and barely give us any benefits or paid time off. Even if we do apply, we’re almost always immediately rejected, even for positions we’re overqualified for. And yet, we continuously hear from professionals, professors, parents, and our own peers (mainly annoying people on LinkedIn) about having a job lined up for us RIGHT AFTER we graduate. I mean this in the best way, but this is some bullshit, and we have got to get rid of this expectation.

After everything my generation and I have been through collectively, why should we run toward adulthood? The only good thing to come out of the pandemic was showing us all the reality behind the over-romanticized lifestyle of a 9-to-5 office job. You want me to work 8 hours a day at a desk to only be paid $45,000 a year AT MOST, get enough benefits and insurance so I don’t go bankrupt after each medical visit, and pay about $1,800 a month to rent a hole-in-the-wall studio apartment that hasn’t been updated since the late 1900s? How does that even sound like an ideal life? Why are we as a generation expected to follow in the suffering that everyone else went through? Why do we have this ideology of, “I suffered to get this far, so it’s only fair the person after me goes through the same process”? Why should we even have to endure unpaid internships, low wages, and mistreatment for the sake of a job title that means nothing to who we genuinely are?

What I am thankful for is that a majority of my generation feels the same way. As a collective, nobody knows what to expect from our future as throughout our entire childhood and teenage years, every passing year has had some sort of disturbing historical event we did not ask to be part of. It feels like we were robbed of our futures before we even had the chance to think of what we even wanted to do with them. Before any of us were even allowed to enjoy the freedom of our 20s, we had that ripped away from us in 2020, with the class of 2023 officially being the last college class that remembers what college life was like without the pandemic.

I want to give a message to my generation: I give you permission to give yourself a break and do what makes you feel fulfilled. Notice how I didn’t say happy. Happiness comes and goes, but fulfillment is this rush of feelings where the work you are doing resonates with you and you feel that you are genuinely contributing to something. Take some time to find what suits you. If there is one thing this pandemic has taught me is that jobs will come and go, but our lives are delicate. These corporations have made it clear that we are nothing but a number in the system to them and if we are to be treated as a number, as people who are replaceable, they don’t deserve and shouldn’t expect us to hand ourselves over to them unless it’s on our terms.

Go out into the world and do what you want to do. As for me? When graduation arrives, I plan on returning home to California and seeing what I can find there. Maybe I will get a job related to my major. Maybe I’ll return to working at Urban Outfitters (which I loved, by the way, best job ever, AND a 60% off employee discount). At some point, I want to save enough money to travel and see all the wonders of the world before life gets too busy. All I know is that I have to believe things will work out.

Before the pandemic, I had the mindset of getting a job by graduation and diving into work, and accumulating wealth and property to live a life of luxury and success. That was my 10-year goal for post-grad. But these past four years have shifted my entire perception of reality and what I truly want. What I really want in 10 years is to be living in a quaint home somewhere in Northern California, by the beach, with a little ranch for the animals in our backyard to run around in. In the afternoon, my husband and I will take long walks on the beach as the sun sets, maybe adding a child or two to carry on our strolls. And then when we return home, we will make dinner for our friends and family who will be coming over to recount warm memories and make new ones. All I want for myself and for the others in my generation is to find peace, happiness, and love. What good is having a high-paying job, a luxury lifestyle, and an upscale apartment if you’re burnt out and alone? I just want enough to be comfortable, travel a little bit, and find somewhere to call home.

The future looks terrifying and uncertain for our generation, but for some reason, I still have hope it’s all going to work out for all of us.