If I had $1 for every time I had this conversation, I wouldn't need a job

Singing along to: Modest Mouse, The World At Large

The conversation goes something like this, and everyone who has recently graduated or is on the cusp of major life changes can probably recite it word for word along with me:

Well-Meaning Person: So! You just graduated, right?

Me: So it would seem.

WMP: You going to graduate school?

Me: Not if I can help it. Ha ha.

WMP: So what are you up to lately?

Me: Working at the caterer. Still. Volunteering at the museum. Still. They can't get rid of me. Ha ha.

WMP: Have you asked the people at the museum if they have a job for you?

Me: OH MY GOD WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT? Oh right, because they're understaffed and out of money. Just like everybody else.

WMP: So are you applying for jobs?

Me: Wait, you mean you have to APPLY for them? I thought they handed them out with the diploma. I was actually starting to worry that someone had screwed up at graduation.

WMP: ...

Me: Yeah. I've been applying for jobs since February.

WMP: Oh. What was your major again?

Me: Medieval Studies. Which is probably why I haven't found a job yet.* Ha ha.

WMP: Ha ha.

Me: Yeah, you're just glad I made that joke so you didn't have to.

--

*I don't know why I keep using this line. It is not funny, and any traces of funny it may have once had have long since been steamrollered into oblivion. The forced levity of my delivery probably don't help either.

--

But it's all okay, because Ben Bernake has just come out and said the recession is, like, basically over. Soon we'll all be rich and happy and employed again! Right? Right!