My wife traveled to Lexington to serve as a judge at a speech competition at Henry Clay High School. Our daughter was a participant from her high school here in town.
College students who were big “speechies” (as some call themselves) in high school sometimes come back to help at the competitions. My wife wound up with lots of spare time between her judging duties, and met a young woman who hails from our community who is finishing up a journalism degree at my alma mater, WKU.
This young woman was telling my wife all about college and her journalism degree she'll receive in May. She also added that she had no earthly idea where she was going to get a job.
She went into great detail about how she couldn't stand to be around journalists; they're snobby and sooo opinionated, and they tend to hang out around their own group, she explained. And what about those people who work on the College Heights Herald! Those fools are up all hours of the night! She explained there was no way she would EVER have considered working on the paper! She had classes to attend to!
She was also too busy to fool with being a part of the yearbook, and too busy to pursue an internship. It was only after she completed her oral dissertation on the Evils of Journalists and Journalism that my wife told her she knew all about it, she's married to a journalist who was a graduate from WKU!
My wife was quite amused that this young woman has spent four years pursuing a journalism degree, but little (if any) time pursuing real journalism experience. I can understand how she must feel, facing graduation with nothing to really show for it. Not only did she not have experience, but she showed nothing but disdain for those who are working in the field!
The sad part is this young lady isn't alone. I'm sure there are others in the same program — and countless others — who got in a major and at the end of four years wondered why the hell those chose that major. It's hard to expect any 20 year old to know what they want to do with their life at such a young age. You hope that by that time, they have an idea of what interests them (besides frat/sorority parites).
I wish this young lady well; she won't have a stack of clips to send with a resume, but perhaps she'll find a calling in PR or other Mass Communication field.