*This is an attempt at spacing out what I expect to be a much longer post into a series of shorter entries*

I am back from my college orientation program, where I spent thirty-six hours surrounded by fellow students all approximately as qualified as I am to attend my university. We of course all vary in our backgrounds and accomplishments: I met very preppy students from private academies and boarding schools, very down-to-earth students from rural communities, and a multitude of students from large public magnet schools very similar to my own. It was, by and large, a great group of motivated young people, all of whom I hope to meet at some during the next four years. Each person has his or her own story, his or her own passions, and I expect to learn as much from the community as from my courses.

In a few months, however, we will be forced to strike a careful balance of competitiveness and camaraderie. We all want great social lives, we all want to celebrate when we beat our basketball rivals, but most everyone wants entrance into the same internships, study abroad programs, and grad schools.

Though the economic forecasters on the nightly news seem rather abject when discussing our “recession,” we will truly graduate at a perfect time to enter the job market: as the Washington Post recently reported, my generation faces both incredible challenges and opportunities. We are relatively uniquely qualified, and despite a tremendous sense of entitlement, we are in an interesting position to deal with the changing economic landscape.

To get these job offers though, I’m supposed to be capable of doing everything, perfectly, without any more prompting than my own selflessness (or at least an ambitious self-interest). So far, I have refused to give in entirely to the game — I am attending a public university in part to keep costs down, I refused to worry and fret about my GPA and class rank, I only joined clubs because I was interested, not because they would look good on applications.

The times I have played the game, it has been on my own terms. I call my own hours on the project I’m interning with for the summer, I changed employment out of my own self-interest. The pressure, though, cannot simply be ignored, and it remains to be seen how effectively my generation will handle the strain.