It is impossible to tell what these four years at Rutgers will do for my future. Our generation is the first to have what I would call an excess of college students. But it is not our drive, our hard work, or the pressure from family that got us here, like in previous times; it is merely the fear of failure.
The recent “Occupy” demonstrations have finally shed light on our increasing economic crisis, but with so many college graduates and so few job openings, it is up to our generation to decide whether we will keep fighting for the same jobs or develop our less congenial fields. For an economic revolution, American production has to yield more money than American consumption. The problem is that we are not producing enough, and our youth apparently has no intention to regress to low-prestige jobs. What the United States needs is more people (who pay taxes) to be willing to do manual labor, thus less people fighting for the corporate and high-scale jobs.
It may be incredibly ironic that I write this, as I am a first-generation college student and also a first generation American citizen, but am not willing to do manual labor. This is because, like every other college kid (and I may be wrong), I believe myself to have far too many logistical and creative abilities. What I find is that there is confusion between elite ability and elite circumstance. Some of us may just be here because we are expected to be here. Although colleges require applications and we all very much deserve to be here, some of us will truly do nothing with our “Masters in 12th Century Poetry.” We are really taking risks that may have a negative effect on our future, but for some of us, like me, those risks are worth the possible outcome.
While on the train last weekend, my best friend muttered “Can you imagine how many jobs there would be if someone decided to clean up all of the abandoned buildings?” Sure! But how many people would drop their portfolios and stand on that line of applicants? We are too self-involved for such a job, and of course, have a shiny paper with a big ol’ Rutgers University stamp on it!
This is not meant to be discouraging at all. What I wish for all Rutgers students is that we realize that what we have deemed to be an era of competition long ago has finally turned into a real blood-sweat-and-tears reality. We all want to win at the end of the day but for some college will just be a trail of really good memories. With this said, I wish you all the best of luck…if you go to Rutgers, that is.
Margarita Rosario