Just a quick reflection on all sorts of topics, from global warming to the job market to American consumerism to whatever I feel like putting into my first diary here. Let's do this.
I'm writing this the day before I rent a car and spend a few days driving across the state, visiting family during the week before I report to my new job. My first post-college job...snagged only months after graduation, with decent starting pay and benefits. Thanks to the wonders of sites like DailyKos and ThinkProgress, I am fully aware of how this is the exception these days and not the rule.
Your typical Tea Partier would probably tell me I achieved this through willingness to work hard, pulling myself up by my bootstraps (whatever that means). Of course, something tells me any such admiration would vanish upon learning I received Pell Grants and took advantage of subsidized loans, and didn't exactly work through college, instead doing unpaid healthcare work as a live-in caretaker for permanently disabled family members. Oh yeah, and this is a job with my state's government. So cue the calls of taking handouts and being a lazy loafer wanting a cushy government job.
Naturally, I'd dismiss such vapid insults with a wave of my hand. But should I feel any pride at all? Again, I was lucky to find out about this particular occupation, which has considerable job security and plenty of opportunities for advancement. Countless other grads with bachelor's degrees, however, will be left out in the cold, even those with degrees similar to mine. Would it be right to feel any sense of accomplishment, knowing luck factored into my good fortune along with skill and perseverance? Knowing that thousands and thousands of other fresh grads don't even have the spark of hope I have now? I'm not sure what to feel.
More rambling under that ornate orangey thing.
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