Congratulations 2006 Graduates!

Graduates, as you pack up your dorm room or prepare to move out of mom and dad’s basement, you’re thinking: “I’m done…the end!” It is the end.

The end of all night studying, exams, yoga courses to fulfill those last 2 credits, the trek home for the holidays, lame professors whose would-be novels were used as doorstops…and mostly it is the end of loafing around.

But, it is also the beginning. It’s now time to get out there and show the world who you are and what you’ve got to offer. Time to get a J.O.B.! Get your resumes together, write a beautiful introductory letter, use your networking skills…and practice, practice, practice the answer to this interview question: “What do you want to do”?

When I graduated from University, the world was a very different place. There may be some readers who were still in Pampers or not even born…so you might not get a Pac Man reference. The U.S. was in the middle of a deep recession…if you’d just graduated, the pickings were so slim that bartending was considered a white collar job for me and many of my friends.

But today, with the Internet, the digital world, blogging (lol), globalization and a seemingly robust economy, opportunities are everywhere.

My advice to you, so that you do not end up wasting your shiney new diploma — is to figure out what you love and for which you have a passion. Those people who are ultra-successful got to be so because they are absolutely love doing what they do.

Also, I advise you to select a designated driver for all the parties you will be attending…you deserve to celebrate.

Congratulations! You are our future.