Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.
- Georg Wilhelm, German philosopher

Where's the hope?

Any high school or college student who has been monitoring current events in the last year might have been tempted to flunk their senior year.

By this time next month, hundreds of thousands of high school and college graduates will don flimsy robes, awkward mortarboard caps and walk across a stage for a handshake and a diploma or degree that took years to obtain.

In one sense, adults couldn't fault that thought because it would give today's seniors an opportunity to avoid for one more year of what appears to be a much harsher and crueler world than many of their predecessors faced upon graduation.

(However, parents probably would not look too kindly on the idea of their student-child taking an extra year to matriculate just because of the economy.)

It's also not a very promising world economically for landing a job for high school and college graduates nationally about to be released into the marketplace.

Where's the hope - when employees are being laid off only to become seasoned candidates fighting for the same entry-level jobs that previously only graduates sought?

Where's the hope - when business giants like AIG, General Motors and other foundation industries are now looking for (or have received) bailouts from the government?

Where is the hope?

You - graduate - are the hope.

Much has been said in praise of experience - on-the-job experience, life experiences, the wisdom that experience brings. Newly sheepskinned graduates are often noted disparagingly for their lack of experience.

Yet not enough has been said about what graduates do possess that they can bring to a job, company or the marketplace.

What graduates lack in experience, they often make up for in energy and passion.

A passionate person will find a way to further the cause he or she believes in deeply. In the process, he or she usually learns a lot about their particular issue and its surrounding factors. And it's a topic in which they have a true interest.

An energetic person is someone who has something to prove to the world or their community for that cause.

Someone who finds their passion in life will find their life's work - only it won't feel like work because they will enjoy doing it.

One doesn't have to look far to see the problems in the world today or its needs. The world is still full of injustices. The world is still in need of many solutions to its problems, great and small.One's passion could be as wide as the concern about global warming or as local as a community's problem with too many unwanted cats and dogs.

Here's some advice for the Class of 2009:

Find your passion.

Then you will be able to find your way in the world.