Turn out the lights, the party's over

Now that the spring semester is upon us, some of you now begin thundering down the homestretch. But as the sheepskin comes into view, what are those other things? Excitement and anxiety. The four to six years is finally nearly over, and the sense of impending success is wonderful, as it should be. But there is that nagging doubt and melancholy. Are (were) these really the best years of your life? You will miss the womb called college. And this is the big one: what next?

You're going to have to get a real job, which is OK I guess since you're supposed to and it will be great to get paid to work and enough with the ramen, pasta, peanut butter, 7-bone steak, and generic everything. But what are you going to do? The world wants you to pick one thing, and you have many things in which you are interested. Of course, the things you're most interested in really don't pay. Not many jobs pay you to drink beer until you vomit, stay up until 4 a.m. saving the virtual galaxy, or to "shop till you drop." Too bad, that's what you're really good at (and actually, there do seem to be a few openings for that last one, particularly on Long Island).

Ah, maybe you can delay the inevitable. Grad school? The military? Your parents' basement? What is most amazing to me is that so many near-graduates do so little preparation for post-graduation. Is it time to do so? Here are the signs:

- Many of those friends and acquaintances that you used to see on campus are no longer there.
-There are a lot more people on campus that look very, very young.
-Someone, perhaps one of those impossibly young freshman, has called you sir or ma'am.

-You know where everything is, and people at those places know who you are- even the professors.

It now occurs to you that graduation is drawing near, and in fact the Records Office and various entities on campus corroborate that suspicion by sending you all sorts of time-to-go information. Soon people start asking you what you are going to do after graduation. With the spring bloom comes a rapid succession of "this is the last time I'll ever thoughts." Now everyone asks you what you will do after graduation, with many (especially those with your surname) inquiring as to whether you have a job lined up. Please note that after graduation, there will be only one (or at least the first) topic of conversation with everyone one you see: do you have a job? The "I've finally graduated" euphoria will rapidly dissipate and be replaced with severe agoraphobic behavior as you begin to loathe social contact and the inevitable job conversation. At this point, the pressure is enormous to find a job- any job. Maybe you will succumb to that "I'll just take this job that I don't particularly want so that I can pay some bills, get people off my back, and keep looking for the job I really want." Of course, you will end up having that tie-me-over job for far longer than you intend, and it will likely pigeon-hole you if you wish to change your career (what's your experience?), but at least you might get a nice gold watch out of it around 2050.

So what's the moral of the story? Start preparing for life-after-college NOW. You have the misfortune of graduating in a brutal economy, but have the good fortune of time and information. You've got some months before the unbearable stress that will be next September without a job. Time to take a trip over to career placement, time to fire up the computer (you'll be amazed at the information on-line), time to start talking to people, and time to grab an internship if at all possible. Time is on your side right now, but time is linear and waits for no one.

And don't worry so much; all of us, at all ages, want to know what we're going to be when we grow up.