The Class of 2002 is quietly ushering out an era of yesterday, and is blindly stepping into an unknown era of tomorrow. Lately it seems that every security we enjoyed and counted on over the last decade has quickly faded into a darkness of uncertainty. I can't order a Turkey Club with LT-white-toast-mayo after my 12 class at the Hop anymore, nor can I drink Milwaukee's Best after 12 at my house. I am not able to take a class in Silsby without jackhammers and nail-guns blaring in the distance. Nor can I relax in my 134- square-foot single on a Friday night due to the adjacent self proclaimed '05 "Party Palace" watching "The Matrix" in slow motion at full volume with their UGA group because they have nowhere else to be. I can no longer place a stock trade in the morning before class and come back to see that I have made another 10 percent on an Internet firm I can hardly pronounce. Nor can I play a casual round at the now closed Hanover Country Club and dream of landing that big-time job. I can say as a "super" senior that after one Chickenman sub, one dorm party and one anemic career fair, we used to have it good.
But even with our current social, economic and political uncertainty, the future is still as exciting as it has ever been. We are not going to graduate from the same Dartmouth we fell in love with when we signed our name to our glowing letter of acceptance during a time of peace and rapid economic expansion. We are a class that has been given the chance to successfully adjust to new environments, and we have so far made the most of our new situation.
My father always pounded into me that the ability to adjust is the ultimate sign of intelligence. My grandfather was unable to finish his medical degree in Czechoslovakia at the age of 22 due to the violent rise of Nazism. My father was forced to leave his degree unfinished also at the age of 22 in Czechoslovakia in 1968 to flee a falling curtain of Communism. With only his bicycle, camera and a pocket full of quarters, he put the "can" in American Dream. As the last remaining son of the Jung family line, I will also stand up to this new "ism" of Terror undeterred.
I listened to the few corporations' representatives that did come to our Career Fair admit that their recruiting class may be one-tenth the size it was last year. I silently wished there were a Non-Recording Option to check on JobHunter.com. I then tried to remember why I was an Economics major again, and I was fairly confident it had nothing to do with Stats. I scrawled my name down with a ritzy logo-ridden pen onto their list. I chuckled at my amusing attempt to write neat and unique. How exciting to think that my little insignificant name will be entered into a database of thousands of other dynamic and highly motivated young individuals also hoping to sell their soul to this faceless Goliath. I am one individual in a verbal sea of homogeneity. My inspiration climaxed after listening to a rookie banker describe how rewarding faxing out of a cubicle can be when it is for the cause of such a dynamic and highly motivated team ...
Did you get the memo? When I got home I put all my free pens into my free coffee mug. I had fun trying to learn how to juggle the three squishy stress reliever balls I collected. I shoved all the glitzy pamphlets into my free backpack, and tonight I might even set up a game of pong with all my free plastic cups. Who knows, maybe my free tin of tasty breath mints will also come in handy. A situation that initially brought a sense of urgency to carpet-bomb my resume on America Inc. in actuality focused my future to an even higher degree.
I almost see our current situation as a little touch of luck. It always works out -- the harder I work, the luckier I get. After abiding religiously for the last nine years to the 10 quick and easy steps to be an investment banker, the eighth step now looks like a good place to pick my head up and take a look around. I will live a happy and fulfilling life as long as I learn to analyze my decisions without the ease of slipping into a Lemming lifestyle. I now have realized that we are all climbing one staircase to the same place. We are all growing and learning, and every single student in America is building its own unique character that will take us to places we never even dreamed about. With our collective creativity and tenacity, we will turn their Terror into their Error.
