There are a lot of things to stress about right now aand being a senior is just a little cherry on top of a shit storm sundae.
You’ve got your usual worries: Will I make money with this degree? Did I do enough in school to get me a good job? Will that job in my field? Will it pay enough? Am I going to have to go back and live with my parents? Does that make me a failure?
The value of a Bachelor’s degree has decreased exponentially, some consider them barely more impressive than a high school diploma. However, have anything less than a Bachelor’s degree and you will very rarely be given the time of day at jobs that aren’t in retail. As an English major, I hear constantly that I will make no money, it even took some convincing to get my parents to let me switch out of IT. My father has a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and he told me that had he been in school during this day and age and not gone for a master’s, there’s no way he would have gotten as far as he did. Bachelor’s degrees are, unfortunately, no longer a ticket to a good job.
With our time in school coming to an end, there is a massive cliff that we are all standing on the edge of. At graduation, we’ll all jump off and some of us will pull the string of a financially secure parachute, while others will go crashing down and have to start climbing. Minnesota State, Mankato has been our home for the last 4+ years. It has been our warm, comforting nest where all we had to do was learn. The years of comfort and carelessness are behind us now as we enter the “real world”.  A world that has become a little scary recently.Â
The fear stems from politics, but we won’t talk about that nasty word (see what I did there?). We’ll just acknowledge that it is a bad time to be a woman, a bad time to be a member of a minority, a bad time to be lower class…really just a bad time to be on earth because, to add to the fun, according to those in power climate change isn’t real. Let’s go on to say that it’s a bad time to be ill too, because parts of the affordable care act have gone poof, much to the dismay of democrats AND republicans.Â
Another stressor that we all get to encounter is the people around us. Not necessarily those in power, but the way that having bad people in a high position empowers some not-so-savory characters. Like I said before, it’s not a good time to be any sort of different. During this day and age, we have to stand up against misogynists, racists, homophobes, the list goes on. Having the epitome of negative nancys in the oval office is simply a case of the blind leading the blind. How can what these people are doing be wrong if the leader of the free world is doing it too? …oh look at that, I said I wouldn’t talk about politics and I did it anyway.
There are a lot of things to be uneasy about as we leave our second home, but it isn’t all doom and gloom that we have to look forward to. Yes, your first job may not involve your major, but you have years upon years to find a job within your field. Patience is your friend in this situation. You also get the opportunity to try a couple jobs and continue to learn who you are (it’s something that doesn’t only happen in college). When it comes to our unfortunate political social situation, we’re all stuck in this place together. To fight against the scary world that we find ourselves in: be angry. Protest, write to senators, add a sassy piece to your blog. Don’t let those who try to keep you down succeed. As women, be strong, don’t let bigotry slide, stand your ground and help others stand their ground as well.