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For Recent Graduates - My Next
Step The following is in interview with Steve Lunsford, a 2003 University of Atlanta graduate and English Major. Stu: Well, Steve, how does it feel to finish college with a degree in the Liberal Arts? Steve: Frankly, I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do now that I’ve finished…maybe go to grad school, take some time off and travel. I have absolutely no idea what sort of work I’m going to do. Stu: No job lined up, huh? Well, from one English major to another, I feel your pain, brother. The situation is best summed up by the plastic key ring I bought, that reads: “I majored in English. Do you want fries with that?” A bachelor’s in English doesn’t really qualify you to do anything specifically, job-wise that is. But it does help develop the innate creativity we were born with in finding some sort of meaningful work. Steve: Yeah, some place with perks and a laid-back work environment, and cool friends. Stu: Sounds like a TV sitcom to me. Steve: Yeah, something like that. Like Friends or something. Stu: My first suggestion to a fellow English major is this—unplug that smoking gun of inanity and run, don’t walk, to the nearest large green dumpster and chuck it in, never looking back! Keep yourself TV-free for the rest of your life! Because there is so much life to live other than what some professionally mastered, 30 minute segment of sex-laced jokes in a utopian atmosphere dreamed up in Hollywood suggests. Steve: Sounds radical for an English major. Stu: It is radical and don’t forget that I’m your friend and I’m trying to help. And speaking of friends, never forget them or the times you had together. But know this: they will scatter from college, once they graduate, faster than you can click the remote through all 78 channels on satellite TV. (Um, you did throw it in the dumpster, didn’t you, Steve?) Never judge your own success by the success of your friends. They probably made all A’s in math anyway, a feat you and I can only sigh in wonder at. And you, a person with creativity, will not dare be bogged down with a job where you have to sit in an office for 80 hours every week. You da man. Steve: Yeah, but where do I find work? Stu: Have you talked to Manual? Manual Lãbore. Steve: Yeah right. Stu: Okay, then how about finding a place this week where you can volunteer to do some menial task for people, just plain folks. Get out of the “self limelight” and into helping others. Go to the hospital’s emergency department waiting room and sit and watch when a man walks in and faces the fact that his little girl might die from a car wreck. Then, introduce yourself and buy that man a cup of coffee and listen as he tells you his story. The “real world” will then graciously unfold to you like a long-lost lover, mostly because you choose to care. Steve: Well, what makes you the Sage of Perpetual Knowledge? Stu: Steve, I don’t know it all. I got married a year after I graduated and neither my wife nor I had a job. I spent the first few years of our marriage trying to find the “perfect job.” I think I found it, because I’ve stuck with it for 12 years now. I’m a firefighter and paramedic in Macon, Georgia. I get paid to help people. Whether their house is on fire or Grandpa goes into cardiac arrest, I’m the first man on the scene. I get paid to help. Steve: You’re a firefighter? Stu: Yes, that is the politically correct term for “fireman.” It’s definitely a hands-on job. I like the medical calls we go on, like cardiac arrest, car wrecks, seizures, active labor, so I went to tech school and got my paramedic license. Steve: Active labor—you mean, like delivering babies? Stu: Yeah. It’s all exciting stuff when I’m on a call. Otherwise it’s dull sitting around waiting on a call. I write about some of the stuff I see on calls, you know, the English major in me coming out. Steve: I can’t see myself doing the baby thing. I’m not into blood. Stu: Steve, it’s whatever you find to do; just work hard enough and you’ll find the elusive success you and all the other millions of new grads are looking for. The old saying goes that you beat 90 percent of the competition simply by working hard. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with [all] your might.” That’s from Ecclesiastes 9:10. Steve: If I could only find something to do. Stu: Steve, draw on your strengths, make a list of what you are good at. Then it’s time for some seed planting, for laying some foundation in your life and walk with the Lord. Build a solid, consistent prayer life, and find a job and stick with it for at least six months. My dad told me that there’s no motivation like working for minimum wage to motivate a man to find a better job. Steve: I heard substitute schoolteachers make okay for a day’s work. Stu: Exactly. Try that for six months. You never know what that might lead to. Please, don’t ever get down because you picked English as your major. And if you get down, and feel dejected, remember that the Lord will pick you up, no matter how many pieces you may be in, because no one accepted Him either. And if I can help, just drop me an e-mail sometime, and I’ll be there to listen, maybe get together, and buy you a cup of coffee. Steve: I’d appreciate that. <This interview was conducted solely within the imagination of Stuart D. Kent, though inspired by an editorial in the Clemson University student paper. It was written for educational purposes only and may not be reproduced in any fashion without the direct consent of the imagination of Stuart D. Kent.>
ninetyandnine.com © 2003, Stuart D. Kent --------- Stuart D. Kent graduated from Mercer University, the only college to award Robert E. Lee an honorary doctorate. He lives and works in Macon, Georgia, about five miles from his alma mater. He avoids yard work like the poison ivy that grows there. |
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