Talking about the future/getting a job stresses me out.

Here at the Missouri School of Journalism we're big fans of the Missouri Method. Working in real newsrooms and getting our work published for all the world to see is part of our graded classwork. Pretty much ALL of this work is done outside scheduled class time during newsroom shifts, but all the journalism classes still insist upon holding class for about three hours every week.

So what do we do with all this class time since no real journalism work is produced during this time? We talk about jobs.

It's awful. I feel like screaming, "NO. I still have my youth, it's too early for this!" If you are thinking to yourself, "It's never too early to start thinking about jobs!" you need to stop reading this right now and go read this instead.

Basically what happens is we start talking (and by we start talking, I mean the professors start lecturing) about jobs and interviews and how to get where we want to be, and I start thinking, "Where do I want to be? What am I going to do with my life? What am I currently doing with my life?" And then it turns into a downward spiral of stress and emotions where my future hopes and dreams are crushed (do I even have future hopes and dreams??) and I turn into an unemployed failure and I get absolutely nowhere in life. Inside, I'm like:

It's very counterproductive.

Even my parents bug me about it. They worry about my GPA, even though I constantly reassure them my GPA is actually really good, they ask me about what kind of job I want, and they tell me stuff about getting jobs. Like they know anything about getting a job journalism industry.

I would know a lot about getting a job in the journalism industry except my downward spiral of stress and emotions begins at the very beginning of every job lecture and I stop paying attention and start worrying.

So as my college years fly by and the dark fog in the distance that is graduation creeps closer and closer, the peril of getting a real job in the real world slowly seeps into my reality, despite my best attempts to push it away. Some might say I should just grow up an accept this reality, but I say no. I'm never growing up. I'm going to be a professional student.

Is anybody interested in sponsoring me?