Graduating from college used to mean doors opening to the start of your career. Opportunities were everywhere. But for people like me, just about ready to graduate, we can all agree that the atrocious job market and dismal economy has ruined our life plans.

I currently live with my parents as I work at two unpaid internships and do at least 15 hours of research each week at a local museum for my undergraduate thesis. After five months of searching for paid jobs/internships, I settled for unpaid so that I was at least doing something, so that my lunches this summer are spent sitting at my desk, not on a couch. And even in the unpaid sector it was hard to find anything amidst intense competition.

When I talk about living at home, without any income, I feel guilty. My parents are getting by on what they have and I hate not contributing. And I feel angry, angry that a promise is made to children that if they work hard and stay in school, doors will open. Yet I see many of my most intelligent peers falling prey to unemployment. And more than anything else I feel worried.

One more semester. That’s all I have left. I graduate in December and that short span of time is all that stands between me and the soulless abyss of the job market. I’ve heard the tales of “boomerang kids” who flock home after being thrashed about for months by unwilling, un-hiring employers. Even scarier are stories of those who don’t come back, who stay chained to minimum wage jobs, their BA’s and skill set atrophying in the background, dreading the day they turn 26 and can no longer be covered by Mom and Dad’s health plan.

It wasn’t always like this. We all felt such a sense of optimism and hope when we applied to that first college or sent out the first resume. We would stare intently at brochures and websites, imagining ourselves as leaders, as curious students, as independent adults. At such an important tipping point, it is easy to get excited about all the wonderful things you could end up doing in life.

But that feeling isn’t there anymore. And in the current economy, how can there be? The nation itself was nearly torn apart by a false debate over the debt, many of our friends and relatives still can’t get jobs, and even the very homes we are moving back into are rapidly depreciating in value. The dreams are still there but a pessimistic realism now reminds us that goals and dreams have to take a back seat to paying rent and student loans.

I can still remember that when I was in high school I would hear people older than me complain about how they wish their career would move faster, how they don’t want to be stuck doing entry level work forever. Now we face not only ferocious competition among our peers for those kinds of jobs, but also the other 14 million unemployed Americans. And if tens of thousands of those competitors have years of experience, how am I to compete?

This should be a time in my life filled with possibilities. I should be dreaming of bigger things, and then bringing that energy and creativity to my work. I should be working hard to find out where my passions and talents lie, so I can get ahead and maybe even enjoy what I do for the next 40 or so employable years. Instead, all this 20-something energy is being sucked into a pessimistic vacuum. As of June, more than 2.3 million of people from the ages of 20 to 24 are unemployed. And the average duration of their droughts of unemployment last over seven months! Upon seeing those numbers, many resign themselves to taking the first low wage job that comes their way, or run home to find jobs near the safety net of their parents. My biggest fear is that instead of a fresh influx of energy and creativity, the job market is getting a worried bunch of grads that are too afraid of layoffs to push for anything truly innovative. In the end, won’t this pessimism lead to even bigger troubles in the future?

That is the tricky part of this whole problem; in order for my generation to help break our economy out of this slump, we need to believe we can actually do it. Optimism is a big part, yet it is a hard commodity to come by. Especially when months are spent in Congress talking about debt and the job market we are drowning in is pushed to the background.  We need job creation. We need new innovative ideas to inspire us. We need a reason to believe in the future.

But right now, that’s the scariest phrase of all: the future. To us, our futures seem as bleak and dark as the basements where we currently reside. And that should really scare the American public because when it comes to the future, we’re it.