By Anna Papachristos
Travel to the nearest Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, or Bed, Bath & Beyond and you will surely discover a section featuring an array of placemats. Many are cloth, some are made of plastic, and for those with young children, you may even choose to buy the disposable kind that stick directly to a restaurant’s table, making cleanup a cinch.
But, somehow, my placemat of choice is the reason why I’m in this mess in the first place. You see, when I graduated college in May 2009, I received this snazzy piece of paper called a degree. (Well, technically I received a red tube holding a simple congratulatory sheet of paper. They made me come back a week later to pick up my actual degree.) Since then, the swanky parchment has done nothing but laugh in my general direction, mocking me with its fancy, scrawled Latin. (That’s right, the entire thing is written in Latin and I cannot read a single word. So much for my major in ENGLISH.)
Now my degree – if that’s what it really is – sits collecting dust (and condensation stains because, well, at the moment it is nothing more than an overpriced placemat), while I continue the endless search for the job this B.A. was supposed to ensure. (Sounds more like BS to me.) And, with the loan repayment bills pouring in and my deferment period nearing its end, I’m beginning to think that red, congratulatory tube should’ve held a giant, whopping bill because once I do start working, it seems the first 25 years will be spent paying people back for an education that continues to leave me banging my head against a wall instead of getting my foot in the door.
Of course, we know that this isn’t the case for only English majors, even though that was the field of study both Allison and I chose. No, no, no… This glorious recession has left all too many scrounging for (and losing out on) jobs that would have once been considered a “last resort” for the well educated.
So join us as we journey to the island of applications and through the valley of rejection as we pursue our final destination: the land of employment!
Comments, suggestions and guest posts welcome! Even new regular contributors! Think of this as an informal unemployment support group. And who’s allowed to join? Anyone who agrees that it indeed “sucks to be us.”
