Ghosts

I'm DONE! Well, done with my freshman year that is. Finally turned in my College Scholar proposal which marks the end of school work for my first year! Doesn't feel especially different though... maybe because I'm taking a summer course which starts a month from now.

It is awfully weird though. For the past however-many months, I've been living in this fantastical college world, and now here I am in the real world. Still unemployed.

The other day I learned something interesting: Apparently record companies give songwriting contracts. New dream career path? I think so. And call me strange if you'd like for not wanting to be a real musician (slash performer), but if I could make money off of writing pop songs, I would never have to work a day in my life (hooray for cliches!). I suppose I'm just different:

It's not everyday
That someone aspires to
Have a ghost career

Recently, I've realized that almost all of the jobs I would be interested in life are "ghost" jobs. Writing for a television show, writing songs, writing speeches, writing almost anything aside from books, really. Really though, I don't want to be famous, and if I can make money just riding the curtails of fame. Think about it, if I got a song-writing contract, I could be doing exactly what I'm doing right now in my free-time, only making money from it. That's a BIG "if" though.

Wanted: work

Well, the job search is a fail thus far. Who would have thought that it would be so hard to find a job, even in a retail environment. No luck with bookstores or restaurants, and still need to take a look at other places. I'm beginning to think that it would be easier to land a record deal than it would be to find a paying job.

Honestly, you'd think it'd be a little bit simpler for perfectly qualified college students to find jobs. But nope, the process is impossible. Every job I either don't fit or I'm overqualified for (I'm pretty sure that the number of Ivy League students that have set foot in Abercrombie is smaller than the number it takes to screw in a light bulb (1-5, depending on the version of the joke). No offense to Abercrombie, it's just the nature of the store).

What I find more ridiculous is the number of graduates who can't find jobs. Namely those in English, linguistics, sociology, or any other field I'm interested in. It's unfortunate really. All of these college-educated students doing jobs that could be performed by high school drop-outs. Which brings me to my haiku:

Something forgotten
About college is that it
Is an investment

The point of college is not to drink, party, or have fun. It's to learn- and importantly, it's also an investment. People spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to school because they expect to make it back. Because college is worth that much. But when college kids are busy working a cash register, using less-than middle school math skills, it just seems like such a waste. Maybe it's a hint that colleges need to lower tuition, or maybe it's just a sign that they need to do a better job helping their students to find jobs. Who knows. All I know is that I don't have a job, and need one.