Through my time at the university there has been a pandemic, a category four hurricane, the impeachment of a president—twice—, an attack on the U.S. Capitol and the start of a possible world war.
Everyone is tired of living through major historical events, but college students are especially over it.
There has been a century of historical events in just the past four years. I could fill an entire history book with only the events that have taken place during my time in college.
There is a real fear that history will continue to repeat itself. The pandemic could get worse at any moment, the issue in Ukraine could expand to involve other countries, another category four hurricane could hit and anything could happen with our economy.
College students that graduated in 2020 were thrown out to the wolves. There were hardly any jobs available at all, never mind at entry level. As a result, most 2020 graduates I know had to wait over a year until they could find a job in their field.
2020 could repeat itself at any moment—or get even worse. It is an unfortunate time to be a college student, as the job market could collapse any moment, and many students are burdened with heavy loans.
Recent events make me question whether getting a degree is even worth it. After all, what does my bachelor’s degree matter if the Earth continues to crumble?
Finance sophomore Greta McBride shares similar concerns.
McBride has not had a single semester of college that has been entirely normal. This semester—her fourth at the university—has come the closest to normalcy, but even then, the pandemic is still not over.
“I am worried about what our world will be like just in the next ten years,” McBride said. “Just these past three years have been crazy. I would have never thought a pandemic would happen, so who knows what will happen next?”
She is right. No one can know what will happen next, and it seems that the list of things that can go wrong contains endless possibilities.
At least we all have interesting stories to tell future generations.
Kacey Buercklin is a 20-year-old political communications major from Murrayville, GA.
