By Ed Baker
Issue date: 5/8/08 Section: Daily Buzz
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College does lots of things: it provides you with an exceptional education in a specialized field, it helps you branch out from the womblike security of your parents and it exposes you to many different people, from many different walks of life.
But college does not prepare you for reality. It's a sheltered place where sheltered academics teach about the way things should be, not the way they actually are.
Granted, that's a very broad generalization. But even removing the education equation from it, many college students are still enclosed in a womb of sorts - buoyed by financial assistance from their parents or financial aid.
Then after four (or five or six) years - poof, it's gone. And then a funny thing happens to many students once they leave that shelter. They expect "what's supposed to happen next" to happen to them.
You know the scenario: the one in which the degree lands them a good, high paying job so they can afford all the nice things that go with it - a fancy car, a house and a clear path to "success," however they define it.
If nobody has let you in on the secret, let me be the first to tell you: that's not the way it's going to go.
Oh sure, you're going to hear about students in certain fields who are going to put down their cap and gown and walk into a $80,000/year job with a stacked benefits package and a cush corner office - after they take the big trip to Europe, of course.
They'll get the house, the car, the spouse and spend weekends sampling fine wines with one pinkie in the air.
But many of you won't even have a "career" job after you graduate.
Heck, many of you won't even know what you want to do.
Here's what I say to that: good for you. Besides, what you "want to do" will probably change several times over the course of your life.
See, the world is full of possibilities and now is your chance to explore them. Elsewhere on this page, we offer a few suggestions.
Try them now. Because once you find that "career" job, time will be something you have very little of.
If I can impart one piece of advice to this year's graduates, it's this: Success is not defined by society, not by your parents, not by your peers. It is defined by you.
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