Aw, Thanks

While browsing imdb this week, I noticed that Alexis Bledel has filmed something called 'The Graduate Survival Guide." Where might that be now?

Resumes go out by the dozen but very few calls come in. Things have changed and the college degree is not what it used to be. Still, you'd think there might be something out there for smart creative gals. Careerbuilder is totally the new facebook. Funny how jobseeking websites become more and more user-friendly as the job's face turns cold.

Out of the thrity or so recent grads I'm keeping track of, about seven have found jobs. These are smart people, too. It feels like we were told such lies about how all this works. We've preened ourselves to academic distinction but instead of the hungry employers we signed up for, there are virtual resume-readers and unfriendly voicemail systems.

And yet, as I look at last year's graduates, they seem to be doing something. Do opportunities really float into our lives like the gradual transition of summer into fall? One day you wake up and there's a questionable leaf on your tree and the next thing you know, you can't remember when it got to be so comfortable outside.

Someone told me about an article that claimed that this generation is more assertive than the job market can handle. We expect more responsibility on the job and offer to do more. In the fourth grade, I was told that I should really have transitioned my casual writing to cursive, as we'd not be allowed to print in the real world of middle school. I floated into each new year and the demand was never made. No exam was thrust back in my face by an angry poindexter who couldn't understand non-joined-up writing.

While I never expected to be quized on koans, calculus, or Quixote, I did expect that the complex analytical thinking and detail-orientation seen in every job description might actually be expected. The world does not seem to be demanding much. I've unveiled so much only to watch it get dusty and that mystical chain of events called education lives in my heart alondside 'the nights we'll never remember and the friends we'll never forget.'

I'm sure that next year I'll be wondering, like I have so many times before, how did I get here? But until then I guess I'll just have to pretend to figure out where I am while waiting for the next phase to creep slowly into my life.

Away We Go

The first Harold Pinter play I ever read was The Dumbwaiter. The plot of this play is actually very simple: two gangsters, Gus and Ben, stake out a hit that turns out to be Gus himself. Underneath their chatty dialogue lies a political struggle that pushes and pulls all the way to the mortality line.

Here, I'll wander from literature to politics and cover issues both local and pervasive. I'll post articles I've written for a local paper and some [veryshort] creative pieces, maybe even some free responses to what I'm reading. For the most part, it'll probably be a lot of thoughts on my daily life.

Hopefully, though, like Gus and Ben's argument about lighting either the gas or the kettle, my simple ideas will reveal something more (to you and to me). Thanks for your interest.