Graduation Day: The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the class of 2009. Our continuing and sometimes futile mission – to search for a steady job, to make money and eventually support ourselves, and boldly go where so many of us have gone before.

That’s what played in my head late yesterday afternoon as I waited in line to rent my cap and gown for graduation. However, the voice sounded more like Captian Picard and less like Captain Kirk.

The most humorous thing about graduation, I’ve found, is that whenever I tell someone that I’m graduating and then I tell them my major – the excitement on their face goes from about “OH MY GOD CONGRATS!!!” to about the height of my knee.

“What are you getting your degree in?”

I smile and say, “Journalism.”

“Oh.. that’s nice,” or they say something that tries very hard to sound polite, but I think it is really code for: Wow… you’re fucked.

I didn’t major in journalism for the money. That much is obvious. I wanted to study it because I wanted to become better at it. I wanted to – how should I put it– learn the ropes?

Fast forward almost five years later and I’m graduating into a recession. The economy sucks, journalism as a whole is looking a bit shifty with big organizations like the San Francisco Chronicle possibly shutting down.

This may be the worst time to be a college graduate with a journalism degree. I see it in the eyes of some of the students at school. They don’t have a clue what to do. They need a job, they want money, and they want to break into the journalism field, get published and become some kind of Barbara Walters or Walter Cronkite like journalist.

I’ve come to terms with my choice of degree and its inability to do much for me at this point. Whenever someone says, “See? I told you should have gone into computer science,” I don’t feel a shred of guilt. Sure, news agencies are buckling all over the country, and yeah, I do realize being a journalist is the most difficult career to succeed in right now. Part of me is petrified that as I get older the only skill I’ve groomed is going to be the one leg I have to stand on, but until the times comes, or until I find something else I’m really good at – there’s no point in freaking out.

I kind of wish my college experience was like Star Fleet Academy, though I’m pretty sure I would have flunked every available field of study they offered, I imagine I would be able work my way up the ranks somehow by just barely grasping the wordy, Trek-speak lingo.

Another good thing about graduating in a Star Trek universe: no money, no recession, no problem … just a lot of war, but we’re already sort of use to that … right?
—Eming Piansay