Time To Fly

We're aware you've likely heard the dire prediction put out by the Wall Street Journal last weekend, that the college graduating class of 2011 will be the most indebted class to ever graduate. Just as spring and the month of May bring bouquets of flowers and bunches of events, so too does graduation bring out those negative nabobs who always want to rain on everyone else's shining moment.

Today's Daily Felltoon and Commentary are a positive message for our readers who are graduating this month - or if you know someone who is, we ask you to forward our words on to them with our congratulations and best wishes.

There is NEVER an easy time to graduate and move into the world of full-time work, despite what some pundits would try to get you to believe. The truth about 2011 is that those who are graduating are entering the best job market in many years. Even while we acknowledge that things are looking up economically, we also are mindful of the fact that the American economy has a long way to go before it's as strong and robust as we'd like it to be.

We fully admit: our country has fallen down on its side of the social contract that has been pushed on multiple generations of Americans. The prototypical American scholastic agreement has been that if a person goes to college and gets a degree, they can all get great jobs. That in turn, is supposed to give the graduate an income level where they can afford things like a house, a car, and kids. Unfortunately, over the last few years, that agreement has been shown to now be the exception, and not the rule.

We don't fault those who are graduating for the failure to create and sustain jobs that pay fairly and decently here in the U.S. That's the fault of our politicians and so-called business leaders, and we'll make no excuses for their failures in that arena.

More than anything, we simply want the class of 2011 to understand that no matter what anyone does or says, the future you have before you is yours to make, for the most part.

Nothing is guaranteed, no job, no graduate school, no career path, no relationship. You'll likely have a few moments soon where you feel like suddenly there's no ground below you, and you're scrambling madly, as though you're in an old Tex Avery or Looney Toons cartoon.

Trust us when we say this - nearly everyone who has gone before you in all of history, has had these same moments.

The question isn't:  Are you going to fall down? You will, of course.

The question is: Are you going to fall with class, and pull out a parachute from nowhere, like Bugs or the Roadrunner always seem to do? Or are you going to fall like Yosemite Sam or Wile E. Coyote, flailing, begging, and crying the whole way?

Keep your head about you, remember what you've learned, and also remember this - you've made it this far in life. Not everyone makes it to this point. There is a reason you've succeeded in life so far. It's mainly because you know how to fall with style and land successfully.

In case you didn't know, that's truly what flying is all about.