Whether it’s staying with a boyfriend, stripping or co-habiting with a cougar, many young graduates are feeling the gravel in the lucid recipe of life gritting against their strategies to live the dream and glitz attached to success as perceived in the court of public opinion, writes GARDY CHACHA
While still in campus, many students don’t want to imagine what happens afterwards when they are done with learning and are off into the murky world of responsibilities and job search.
With term papers completed, final exams graded, and graduation certificate in hand, prospects of a blissful future linger in the cerebral cortex of many.
However, with the economy looking more gloomy, many recent graduates find it hard to crack joblessness — the hard and stark reality of faltering livelihoods.
Then there is the proliferation of dimwit universities and colleges (with names belying sharp knives and God knows what else). This has largely contributed to aesthetic degrees.
At almost every corner of the city you are bound to meet a graduate. And this is before incorporating those from ‘River Road University’; which serves as a conglomeration of various universities on the surface of the earth and below.
Degree hustlers
Gone are the days a degree was held in high regards; now it’s just a paper — one that brings back memories of dark nights spent reading with the assistance of a tin lamp. Our universities, especially private institutions, are churning out degrees more than the output of commercial industries producing market products. And this is not doing graduates any favours. What remains therefore is Darwin’s postulate ‘survival for the fittest’.
All the same, the shift from undergraduate student life to a full-time hustler, a provider for oneself or a satisfier of other responsibilities can be extremely nerve wrecking. For some students, life after college may be the first time they are independent from their parents or caregivers. Moving into the next phase of life can be an intimidating affair.
For others, moving on from a community of friends, teachers and mentors created over their college tenure can lead to a feeling of loneliness and sadness. Furthermore, the unpredictable economy and the high rate of un employment can literally drive graduates to unusual lifestyles just so they can survive.
Striptease
Alice Wankuru is your usual lady when you meet her on the streets of Nairobi. Beneath her veneer of laughter and mundane depiction of life in modest realm, is a woman grappling with questions on what career she should pursue. She graduated two years ago having successfully completed her degree in Business Administration.
