As an undergraduate I hated when people gave me their two cents about graduating. On and on about how the “real world” is hard and how those were the best years of their lives. In a couple of days it will mark the two-month anniversary of my college graduation. And like a fish to water (I’d rather be a mermaid, please) I am swimming in the great sea of life. And I freakin’ love it.

So the economy is crashing and the world sucks a little bit right now, SO WHAT? I mean, yeah it’s hard. As it should be. Working hard for what you have builds character and everyone can use more of that.

I won’t sugar coat it. I am working two jobs so I can save money, but so is my mom and she has her Masters (however, she is a teacher in Oklahoma…we all know the story there). I also worked a hell of a lot more in college than I do now. I had two to three jobs just to get by, and I was a resident adviser for three years so my housing and food were covered. Interesting, maybe that’s why I love the whole graduation thing, I feel like I have a life!

The biggest news you are probably hearing is that there are no jobs and even more are being lost on a daily basis. Looking for a job is never fun. It’s always a juggling act and hard to get what you want. And yes, there are fewer jobs. But here’s what’s great about this. It’s time to set aside boring, ugly, monochrome resumes and let your creative two-year old self you’ve locked away for 20 years come out and play. Like Joshua Persky did when he walked down the streets in New York with an “MIT Graduate for Hire” sign sandwiched to his body. Guess what? He got a job. Persky is now working for accounting firm Weiser in midtown Manhattan.

It’s also not a problem of there not being ANY jobs out there. There are lots of jobs but there are also a lot more people looking for them. That means that you have to have an extra “something” to stand out from the masses. Again, creativity is your friend.

And this is the point where we give funding back to the arts in education, and the point where I appreciate my liberal arts degree even more.

I do miss school, at times. Mainly the people and the things I was involved in. But I have SO much more free time. Despite working 60-hour weeks I watch tons of movies/TV, clean (on a regular basis). I have clean laundry. I get to experiment with new dinners and I get to do things with my friends every week and lallygag around if time permits.

It feels good. Really good, just to be starting a new era of my life.

I will be damned if college was the best four years of my life. They were amazing, but I’m not stopping there, and neither should you. Look at it this way… if we live until we’re 75 then we have over 50 more years left in this life. Those are going to be a long 50 coming when the past four years were as good as it gets. No, thank you.

Cassie Ketrick
Recent OU grad, worker of two jobs, who knows the last four years were not as good as it gets.

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Career, college, creativity, economy, graduation, jobs, real world, student