College Is Over. Now, How Do You Get Money?

I ran into some good friends at a party last week. Like Rip Van Winkle who dropped out of society for 20 years, the helicopter parents of today can go years without seeing other parents, so focused are they on attending every event, scheduling every activity, and desperately trying to maintain a semblance of family connection against the centrifugal forces of social media and teenage peer pressure. But as the kids start to graduate from college, we get to reconnect with our fellow parents and see how we did raising our kids. It should be no surprise that couples who have managed to stay together (or at least remain civil to each other), maintain a modicum of community connection and keep their kids out of jail or the hospital tend to have pretty impressive progeny. I was heartened to see how well so many of the kids that my children have known since kindergarten have done. Not just in terms of achievements, but in their number of friends, being independent, and living a life that promises to use their talents to give back to society.

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Which isn’t to say that the most recent liberal arts graduates have any idea what they’re doing. Even in a robust economy, many are just feeling their way through it. Some are doing a variety of internships. Some have started in one direction with a job that they thought they wanted, only to realize they really want to do something completely different. One graduate I know who studied architecture is parking boats a local marina, loving the tips, and becoming seriously interested in the nautical life.

The first couple years out of college can be tough for liberal arts majors. While your STEM friends are negotiating signing bonuses, getting great apartments and buying cool cars, you’re languishing with your novel or screenplay, getting booed off the stage at an open mic, or discovering that freelance design is sporadic and not terribly remunerative. Hang in there, kid. It gets better.

I’ve noticed an interesting five-year cycle in my college reunions. At the fifth-year reunion, the boastful types: entrepreneurs, musicians, kids set up in business by their parents, seemed to rule the roost. By year ten, it was the doctors and lawyers, now out of grad school with significant incomes. Year fifteen, most people were deep into raising their kids, and the early achievers—investment banker types and engineers—were beginning to look around and see what else life had to offer. Sometimes the wandering look meant a divorce or a geographical relocation. By year twenty, it seemed to me that the most interesting people were the liberal arts majors, who had taken roads less travelled but had often ended up in metaphorical destinations that were life-affirming and joyous.

Twenty years is a long time to wait for a payoff, but that’s the point. The journey is the reward. Life can be a slog, or a journey of discovery. Usually, it’s somewhere in between. So, to the liberal arts majors out there, burrowing in their parents’ basements, dwelling between the life of Raskolnikov and a Beatle, take heart. Make every day a journey of discovery. Meet new people. Read new books. Promote what you’re doing. Practice your skill every day. Life is long and full of opportunity. Believe in yourself, and you’ll be amazed the things you experience along the way.