Question: Any helpful tips for an unemployed political science and economics major who just graduated last spring and tried everything? ( 2.8 GPA, major university, some p/t jobs, community service)
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Answer: I am a 20 year old college student currently enrolled at Western MI. It is a very nice school and I am looking forward to going there. I have heard lots of positives. I am discussing your topic of unemployment because I myself have been unemployed for almost a year. I only was able to work three months out of the past year. I am happy to say that I now collect SSI for it. I was recently able to get a nice car for $5000. It’s an Eagle Talon sports car. It rides like the wind. Anyway, I would like to encourage all people out there who are currently unemployed to never give up because something will always work out. Sure, it’s hard to have to move back in with your parents again after you’ve been out on your own, but things will turn around. They did for me. I exspect to get a new job once I move to Western. I know God will work things out for me, and He will for you too. Thaks for your time. SincerelyMy first reaction is that “firestarter” is a good moniker. Talking about buying a car that “rides like the wind” on SSI money could almost seem calculated to get a rise out of someone.
My second reaction is that I’m not sure whether Natalie is “currently enrolled” at Western MI or is merely “looking forward to going there.” Again, in the spirit of charity, I’ll assume it’s just inapt phrasing and that Natalie means well.
My third reaction, however, is that Natalie is not exactly a poster child for hope. Her encouragement consists of telling people that, yeah, she’s still unemployed, and she is plainly uncomfortable with being forced to move back with her parents, but maybe something will work out for other unemployed people like it did for her: maybe they, too, will be able to collect SSI.
As we near the end of the tale, we find that Natalie doesn’t have a job yet, but she hopes she will be able to get one, now that she is moving out of her parents’ house and going away to college. Unless she is going away for the purpose of attending college only part-time (which seems improbable), I have to think that she must be looking forward to merely a part-time job, most likely at a low wage.
Finally, to address one other preliminary thought, I’m not really sure we should be sticking God with the blame (or the “credit,” if you prefer) for this scenario.
Whatever we may make of Natalie, I believe the real point is that there are young people whose minds and/or lives are incredibly fouled up. These are people who may decide to take a major plunge and to attend college, in hopes that it will somehow, perhaps miraculously, turn around their lives. In many cases, their part-time college jobs don’t pay their way, so they accomplish this “miracle” by taking out large amounts of student loans.
We hear from such people regularly, over in soc.college.financial-aid, after they have finished their college educations and have discovered that the gold rush didn’t pan out. They may still be confused, but now they have college educations, in some sense of the term — along with huge and unmanageable student loan debts that further complicate their lives.
It seems ironic, in these cases, that within four years, our admirable goal of setting such young people free to pursue their dreams can lead them to a place where they will look ahead to a student loan burden with which they will wrestle for ten, twenty, even thirty years — indeed, in some cases, for the rest of their lives. As the costs of education continue to rise, it becomes increasingly clear that the student is often a dollar delivery device, a mere conduit through which unrepayable taxpayer money can flow to colleges (incidentally providing the enabling banks with a guaranteed annual interest payment until further notice).
I mean no disrespect to Natalie beyond her own words; but I do see, in those words, one more example of a situation in which the current educational financing system sometimes places an excessive burden upon the people who, of all participants in the college admission and financing process, are least suited for carrying it. The topics she addresses — money, jobs, hope — are not simple or God-guaranteed, and a wise college application strategy will not assume otherwise.
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