Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Life after college
Opinion: Graduation should be a time of celebration, at the moment, it isn't.
This recession has been brutal; anyone from any position on the political spectrum from “commie” left to “neo-liberal” right will concede that. Unemployment has sky rocketed, property values have imploded and the grim spectre of immigration once again stalks our families and airports. When the bubble burst it took down the economy but more than that it killed a very important dream, the dream of prosperity and freedom from want. The promise of my childhood, of my generation was that if you worked hard in school you’d get the place in college that you wanted, if you made an even greater effort there you could achieve the job of which you’d always hoped and that you deserved. That promise has been utterly broken.
Graduation should be a time of great celebration, of recognising and rewarding years of dedication and exertion at the moment for many, it isn’t. Instead it is marked by increasing uncertainty and anxiety for the future. Young people are quite literally graduating into the dole queue, instead of having boundless opportunities to earn their way in life, to contribute to society they are being left with no option but to sign on. Youth unemployment far out strips unemployment in general it is as high 25% for young men. This is a genuinely frightening statistic, especially when one considers the emotional and mental strain that joblessness and welfare dependence causes and the fact that young men are already more likely to suffer from mental health issues, substance abuse and to commit suicide.
I am fortunate enough to have a part time job, I never really imagined staying in this job after I finished college, to say it is mind numbing and incredibly tedious would be an understatement of the highest order but I am acutely aware of just how privileged I am to be able to even form an opinion of a job while so many of my friends spend their days searching fruitlessly for any kind of employment. Sometimes I still get depressed about it, I want to do so much more and I can do so much more but nobody wants me. I am barely able to get by with what I earn, I can’t save and if had to fund any unexpected expenditure I simply wouldn’t be able to do it. As for further education, which I am qualified for, that will have to be put off indefinitely as I just cannot afford it.
We have a new government who promised us a massive drive to create jobs, a major effort to address the crushing crisis of youth unemployment as thousands of our brightest headed abroad. Several months into the new administration the highlight of the labour initiatives has been the ongoing efforts to undermine the protections of some of the most vulnerable labourers in our country. Hardly inspiring stuff. Perhaps we can look to the Taoiseach for some hope? Nope, he seems to be using his premiership as some form of international friend finding mission giving (stealing) waffly speeches whilst young people in the real Ireland continue to languish.
What to do? Things seem pretty bleak at the moment but the very first thing to do, or rather not to do is despair. The story of our history is one of perseverance, ours truly is the little nation that tried and never ever gave up. Resurgence is indeed possible and will come but I think it must come from that real Ireland that suffers now, not the greying men of government whose life experience ends at the gates of the Dail.
By: John Dunphy
Got something to say yourself? Sure you do. Submit your own opinion article.
