[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpmr8Shy_UA]
I’ve always been the baby of my friends thanks to my Dad putting me in pre-school early. But even in college, I just always seem to drift toward the older crowd, not by much (the typical age gap between my friends and I is between 2-5 years) but just enough for me to sit back and observe the “life and trials” of a recent American college graduate. Just about all of my friends graduated a few weeks ago and the story has been the same: no job (or one without benefits), moving home (because they can’t afford to live on their own), and literally just confused about what steps to take next in life. Grad school rejection letters have been flying left and right because “hey” that was everyone’s chosen direction once the economy crashed, “I’ll just stay in school until it’s over.” And now everyone is kind of just sulking on their living room couches dealing with the after effect of being a college graduate with loans about to kick in, in approximately 6 months.
I was talking to one of my friend’s in London about the whole American student thing of needing to find a job within 6 months to pay off student loans and he looked at me like I was crazy. Supposedly in the U.K., student loans are attached to your social security number, when you get a job, the bank takes out a certain percentage of your salary to go toward your student loans, but if you end up unemployed then you aren’t obligated to start paying back the debt until you get a job. Wow, isn’t that a novelty? That would sure help out a lot of students in America right now and take off the stress of finding a decent job as soon as possible. But since America is really just one large bank, I mean our Federal Reserve actually is privately owned, I doubt something like that would come to pass. I’m thankful that my president is throwing out billions in aid to American families, but really the whole system needs restructuring. Why put the monster on a diet when you can just kill it?
In the “meantime” (as I always like to quote Iyanla Vanzant), my friends have all found themselves at the crossroads. Spending time on your parents couch and watching reruns of Maury, will always make you think. The truth of the matter is (at least I believe) that God always shows you what direction to take. He probably showed you months ago and perhaps you weren’t listening, or maybe you need to be at home right now for reasons yet to show themselves. Don’t fret, it’s all going to work out, and I’m not just saying that because I’m in Spain. America always bounces back. The question just becomes, how much longer until another recession and how will we all prepare to not be in this situation again?
I’ll meet you at the Crossroads.