Finals to Future

As the semester's end approaches, seniors across the campus scramble to finish their capstones, the culminating project that binds together a student's college education. Culmination. I find myself mulling this word in my head. Encapsulating, gathering all experiences, the end. But is this really the end? No, it is but the end to one chapter and the beginning to another.

On May 21 I will finish my collegiate experience at Cal State Monterey Bay, moving south to Los Angeles where my future is bright and smoggy like the Angelean sky; smoggy because like many graduating seniors I will have to join the job market. I was there once. I worked for many years in the telecommunications industry. Times were easier then; the housing bubble had not burst and I was on the forefront of the mobile revolution. Money flowed like wine at a Dionysian family reunion.

But now I am faced with uncertainty. The unemployment rate still hovers close to double digits nationally and is over 12 percent in Los Angeles. Journalists are forced to perform multiple jobs and are only paid for half. Many are under the guise of freelancing, but it seems to me the key word is free or, "not being paid for." I have to diversify myself to seem hirable.

I have spent the last three years pushing through CSUMB at an accelerated rate. Trust me when I say this was not by choice. Rising tuition and fees were a hindrance to my education as they prevent me from coming back to CSUMB. I accrue all of the costs myself, with the only help being loans and two small scholarships. And the loans, 90 percent of my funding, I have to pay back with interest.

As a graduate I am faced with a myriad of hardships right out of college, but I have one ace up my sleeve: my degree. Despite what some may say about CSUMB, the degree we receive is worth every penny, and I know what those pennies are worth. I leave school with my head held high and I accept there will be challenges, but that's what makes life interesting.

I look forward to when a potential employer asks about my small school on the bay. I will tell him or her of the personal relationships I gained with the staff, faculty and friends. I will discuss the benefits of a president that knows you personally, based not on financial donations but on time and hard work invested. I will expound on my experience of editing a bi-weekly paper and how proud I am of my accomplishments.

I look forward to my future eagerly and so can students look to the future of CSUMB. Our sports department is on the rise, our technology staff looks to innovate our campus even more than then have in the past, and faculty seeks new and invigorating ways to educate. CSUMB is a place that grows problem solvers not complainers. And although I would not have said it my freshman year, I am proud to be an Otter.

Farewell CSUMB, you OTTER be great.