Does a degree equal dollar signs anymore?

And now for an introduction.

I am Julianne, I just graduated college and am looking for a job. And I have realized something in the time it took me to walk across the stage and shake my dean's hand until the time it took for my snail mail school to send my my degree.

A Bachelor's isn't worth shit anymore.

I am twenty two years old and I still live at home. My room decor consists of charcoal portraits that I drew of celebrities because sometimes, let's face it, I have nothing else better to do. But if you're actually interested, check 'em out at www.myspace.com/artbyjuels. That's right. I have a myspace account. My car is consistently dirty, smeared in dusty pollen that seems to be prevalent at all times of the year. Rain or shine. My check engine light has been on for almost three months and there is a small red light emanating off my dashboard that looks like a person getting smacked in the face by an airbag. I don't know what this light means.

I also have a boxer that I'm pretty sure is either gay, or autistic, or a sci-fi combination of both.

But what is most depressing about my life as of late is I cannot, for the life of me, find a job. I am not completely unqualified, though, to fulfill my dreams of starting a career. I have a degree in Creative Writing, (with that oh so important minor in English) and yet, despite my best efforts, I am still a waitress. Better yet, I am a Chili-head. As in I serve people their baby back- baby back- baby back ribs. (Barbecue sauce.)
Does that make me sound pathetic?

What was most pathetic was my college graduation, really. I went to UC Riverside and in case anyone has paid attention to the news in the past month, you might recall a bomb scare. That's right. Someone threatened to bomb my college graduation. Possibly they wanted to make room for an entry level job for them self and, what the hell, all their friends, by deterring a couple hundred college graduates. Possibly they didn't think things through. Possibly they need to work desperately on their terrorist tactics. Either way, there were cops staked out around the tops of the buildings giving me the feeling that I might get sniped at any given moment and I wasn't allowed to wear my robe for fear I might be hiding an oozy underneath it.

I was completely disappointed in my graduation and essentially my entire college experience until I realized the search for a post baccalaureate job was like dipping your toes in honey and waving them in front of a bear, hoping to come out it on your feet, or with at least one foot-- on a good day.

What I am wondering at this point in my life is if I will ever find a job worth having? Or am I going to do something demeaning and worthless? Society has always told me: Go to school. Go to college. Get a degree. Get a career. Make money. So far none of that has happened. I'm at a place in my life where the world is going to fall into place for me, at least that's what I've always heard and for some reason believed. I want to write, and thus far have only ever found success in writing for non-profit online resources such as this one.

Since I'm pretty damn good at this, yet fail miserably at finding a job, I thought I'd share with the world the adventures of my interviews, phone calls, apartment hunting, etc.
In the meantime, enjoy my somewhat pathetic attempts at life.

Until my first interview,
Julianne Fulton
Writing for those who want to read