Degree in hand

OK, I’m a college graduate.  Now what?

That thought ran through my mind as soon as I finished my last final exam one day in the spring of 1969.  Yeah, there was still the formality of Commencement, which I had no intention of attending.  All diplomas would be mailed to our home addresses sometime in the summer.  At this point, though, I had fulfilled all the requirements (including “applying to graduate”) for my degree.  I was ready for “the real world.” Or at least to be thrust into it, ready or not. 

High school and college graduations were, for me, two different species of life events.  High school graduation marked my liberation from childhood and escape from my hometown.  By the time I walked across the stage and was handed a rolled-up, blank piece of paper representing the diploma I would be handed when I turned in my cap and gown, I had been looking forward to college for a long time.  I had been accepted by early decision to the University of North Carolina, which is in Chapel Hill NC.  After that, in my mind I was gone to Carolina.  College graduation, on the other hand, did not mean I got to leave Chapel Hill.  It meant it was time I had to do so for the sake of my continued growth.  I was as sad about finishing college as I had been happy to have finished high school. 

So, I went and sat on the rock wall separating campus from Chapel Hill’s main drag, Franklin Street.  Another thought popped into my head: Maybe I’ll just sit here until someone comes by and offers me a job. In reality, I would be starting graduate school in the fall, after spending most of the summer playing nightly in a club in Augusta GA.  But for now, I enjoyed the fantasy of waiting for a serendipitous job offer. 

Long before I got bored sitting there, an acquaintance happened by.  I think he was maybe one year behind me.  In our short conversation, he told me he had a summer job lined up in some kind of sales, probably door-to-door.  He would be supervising other summer workers – and – he invited me to be one of them.  I wasn’t interested but appreciated his offer and, more so, was amused that someone had, in fact, come by and offered me a job as I sat there waiting. 

That was enough to get me on my feet to mosey on up the street to University Baptist Church, where I had enough standing to be able to park my car there occasionally.  When I got there, the associate pastor and a couple of other people were repainting the white lines between the parking spaces.  I picked up a brush and joined in.  When we finished, the associate pastor told me they needed someone to paint a couple of classrooms, for an appropriate level of hourly pay.  Was I interested? 

There you go.  After finishing my degree, I got two job offers before I got to my car.  This one would give me something to do before the singing gig started and would provide some funds to tide me over until then.  I took it.  My first job after graduating from college would be as an unskilled house painter.

Would that the job searches yet to come would turn out to be so easy.