Note To The Class of '09: Keep Your Head Up

I've been listening to radio and television casts about the demise of recent high school and college graduates not finding any work thanks to the recession. Of course it's hard to feel too sorry for a twenty-something, straight out of college that has never even had the pleasure of a job to get laid off from, when seasoned veterans twice their age have just run out of unemployment dough.

Here's something I would want someone to let me know if I was once again in their shoes, as I was during the 1991 recession:

• Stay with your parents and save every dime you can, for as long as you can

• The time to take risks, is when you don't have a spouse and children that rely on you

• This too shall pass

• Use this time to discover what it means to have a "good work ethic"

• You have a lot of latitude (read: margin of error) in your twenties you won't have later in life, use it.