“Is there no way out of the mind?”

“Is there no way out of the mind?” -Sylvia Plath

Not my mind.

My mind is always in full gear. There is no way out of it.

Even in my sleep I’m worrying about work, my life, my relationships. The college mind is a sea full of anxiety.

Ever since I was little I wanted to go to college but when the average college student graduating with $21, 000 amount of debt (according to a cnn.com article that ran in 2008), I wonder how better off in the world I’ll be.

Not to mention every time it comes to think about loans I want to breakdown.

And although I know college is a great step for me, it’s been a learning process, in many ways.

Like how I choose to be a journalist to be practical about my love for writing. But with newspapers shutting down across the country and the world of journalism changing, my advisers are constantly telling me to make sure I’m a “marketable” person.

Makes one feel like a machine.

My favorite though is how most people ask me, “aren’t you scared you won’t get a job since journalism is dying?”

It’s not dying, it’s changing folks.

But, in reality, most of the jobs that are out there for me will have me packing for a home miles away from a place I’ve lived all my life.

And especially for those of us in Michigan as the unemployment rate is currently standing at 25.2 percent according to michigan.gov.

If life beyond graduation isn’t enough, it’s life before it.

Since I was 16, I’ve been working, I paid for every car I’ve ever owned, my car insurance and cell phone. And I’m very proud of myself for that.

Since I’ve entered college I’ve never had less than two jobs and at one point, even three.

I still pay for my own car, my own insurance and cell phone, in recent addition, rent, groceries, electric and hospital bills I can never seem to catch up on.

But, I’m still thankful that I’m one of the few college students, or Americans for that reason who can experience medical insurance.

I know most of this is just a long ramble with a few facts in it, but I don’t think my worries are any less than the next American.

I’m just speaking on behalf of one college student’s mind.

Ashley Wioskowski, the Western Herald editor in chief, is a junior majoring in journalism and can be reached at herald-editor@wmich.edu.