You gotta have heart

I choose to believe that last Saturday’s snowstorm is winter’s last gasp. (Snow in April. Can I tell you how wrong it is to snow in April?) At the moment, we’re having a gloriously sunny day, appropriately cool for early spring. The students are reacting to the sun and warmth like the daffodils do… exploding out of their winter coats in a riot of giddyness and color.

(That’s not a mixed metaphor. In Little College Town, we actually have giddy flowers. Ask anyone. It’s like if H.R. Pufnstuf wasn’t so damn creepy.)

I was in line at the coffee shop behind a couple of students discussing employment options after graduation. "Hi there. I understand everything about post-colonial social interactions in Central America. Hire me. Please. I don’t wanna go back to The Gap."

You’ve probably already heard that old line about how "you can do anything with a liberal arts degree" because "it’s a degree in learning how to think." But chin up, folks, because it’s true. And would you like to know why?

Because there’s a bunch of us already out here who got our jobs on nothing but a firm handshake and that line. We’re not just out here supporting you because of our common experience and shared intellectual values.

We’re counting on you not to be the weak link in the chain. If they find out you don’t have marketable skills, they might start looking for ours. So we’ll do anything in our power to propagate this... assertion.

Not that we’ve got a lot of power. We’ve all got liberal arts degrees too.