Keep On Graduating: Life is a Do-Over

Your graduation date is coming up soon. Congratulations! You are probably thinking in terms of the future: what job will you get? How much money will you make? When will your student loans be paid off?

How soon can you take a paid vacation?

You have accomplished an admirable feat by completing a phase of your education.

Now what?

It's funny how we keep re-adjusting our lives, isn't it? Every part of life has an end that leads to a new start. A few years ago (maybe more than that), if you were starting high school, you thought: this is scary and new-how will I find my way around? What will the classes be like? Who will be friends with me? Will I like the teachers?

What if I can't open my locker???

Starting college, in small ways, resembles starting high school-again, in that you don't know the surroundings, instructors, or fellow students. Otherwise, college is refreshingly different: This time, you get to re-invent yourself: what you wear doesn't matter, everybody is 'college poor,' you're all seeking what to do with your lives. Nobody has any history with you. Cliques are gone. At the same time, college can be a sort of cocoon that shields you from the outside world until you're finished.

And a bonus: no lockers.

If you are getting ready to graduate from college, now you're thinking: I'm done with school, now I'm going to have my career. Your career will present a new set of people to know and new surroundings as well. It seems that life is just one 'do over' after another...almost like 'graduating' again and again.

Isn't that great?

Think in terms of 're-inventing yourself.' You are probably going to do this several times in your life. It doesn't only mean in your career/what you do to pay your bills, although that will likely occur more than you think: you may find yourself bored with a job, you may get promoted to a different job, you may have your job eliminated. You may pursue higher education in order to move to a new level of your career or to make a change in it.

It also applies to your personal life: you may get married, you may have a child, you may part ways with various people. There will be negative experiences and difficult times as well as plenty of good times. You will certainly make new friends and have new experiences; you'll have lots of learning opportunities. Each time, you have a chance to start over and re-invent yourself: you can see your world through a different lens.

Isn't that great?

The key to re-inventing yourself successfully is the way you react to it. There will be times when graduating from something is not what you really wanted. You can decide to complain about it endlessly, or you can feel sorry for yourself briefly and then see the 'up' side. What opportunities does this open up for you? If you are free from the last phase, what can happen next? What do you want? And how will you get there?

After all, what if you never graduated? Who wants to stay in the same place doing the same things and knowing only the same people you know right at this minute?

Education gives you a good toolkit: In it, you'll find all the things you learned, but also: self-esteem, responsibility, goal-setting, accountability, initiative, accomplishment, and pride. Break out the toolkit often and bring out the things you need. They're in there. You earned them---use them.

And that is a great thing.

Keep graduating your whole life, and enjoy the do-overs!

In the words of Dr. Seuss: "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

Ramen Noodles, Mac & Cheese, Cereal, and Peanut Butter

College students have some standards. When it comes to eating cheaply, they know all about the staples that can tide you over when you have about $1.73 to your name until the next paycheck/care package/free cookie offer finally shows up.

The classics are noted at the bottom of that pyramid: Ramen Noodles, EasyMac. Of course, there are also things not noted like cereal, peanut butter, soup, and hot dogs.What do these food manufacturers have in common? Careers! Look at the list of positions you might be interested to know more about in the food industry:



Administrative
Research and Development (creating and testing new products)
Engineering (yes, engineering-I have seen a reference to 'food engineering' a number of times)
Flavor chemists (I did not make that up) to test products for flavor and aroma
Food Safety
Packaging design
Marketing and sales
Production Line and supervising the production line
Quality Control
Pricing
Accounting; company stock; communicating with shareholders
Legal advisors
Consumer product evaluations (taste tests and their results)

Models of wheat molecules


Let's think about a few of these careers:


Someone working in the food manufacturing industry will have had plenty of science in his or her background and education: Chemistry/chemical engineering, physics, biology, computer science, and also psychology, economics, social studies.


Food manufacturers need people to ensure their production facility is handling the food safely. Our government has standards in place that food manufacturers must obey. There are careers both in food inspection and in the plants where food is made to be sure it's handled safely.

 Carrot Cells




Food manufacturers employ dietitians and nutritionists. These employees look at the ingredients in the foods and assure the food labels are accurate (calories, carbs, etc.). If the manufacturer seeks to produce something that could be deemed 'healthy' or 'light,' or if it is an entire company based on 'health foods,' recipes need to include some things and exclude others. Have you noticed how, as people become more aware of a particular 'food fad,' it is reflected in foods we've had for years? Think 'whole grain' Alpha-Bits or 'anti-oxidant cranberries' in Great Grains cereal.

Changing the form of food into cereal, fruit bites, chips, or other pieces requires engineering of the ingredients, including what to add to the food to make it stay fresh. You might work on the food itself. Otherwise, you might be an engineer who could build a machine to use to produce that product.

What about marketing the product? You might design a cereal box, which might involve drawing, designing a logo, or taking photos: Think of the Wheaties box with the Olympic medalists. Learning about marketing will let you see which colors typically attract people more (red and yellow), which lettering, what size parts of the ad or the container should be.

Someone who works with statistics could determine future buying trends by recognizing what people want to buy. You might work directly with the manufacturer of the food or for a company that does research including polls and taste tests to record the results. Or, you might work on existing products to see what is selling and what is not.

If someone asked you to describe a box of Cheerios, you would probably think immediately of the yellow overall color of the box and the classic lettering of the name. The same is true for Coke (all red with classic lettering) and Campbell's Soups (top half white, bottom half red, gold 'medal' in the center). You can picture the basic packaging with no problem, right? Someone designed that years ago, and it's still the way they package that product. Slogans that stick with a product for years also help with customer recognition: "The best part of waking up is Folger's in your cup" or "M&Ms melt in your hand, not in your mouth or "The Incredible, Edible Egg" are all phrases that help sell products.


You might be involved in writing commercials that appear on television. You may design the entire ad, or may work with computer graphics or with humans who will 'act' in the ads. These usually involve music as well. Can you remember the 'theme' to Rice-A-Roni? Klondike Bars? "My bologna has a first name..."? And by the way, you're welcome: now one of those is going to stay in your head the rest of the day.

Accountants will be needed in the food industry, as will legal advisors in terms of product liability (we hope nobody finds a mouse in their bottle of ketchup, but you never know) and in case of mergers with other companies.


What do these foods have in common?

                                                       

These foods are all manufactured by Minnesota-based companies: Barrel O'Fun, Hormel, Pearson Candy, Haagen-Dazs, Green Giant, Totino, Yoplait, and General Foods. Minnesota is also home to Schwan's, Progresso Soup, and Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants (these are subsidiaries of General Foods).

Consider a career in the food industry---you never know what you're going to get.

"Health food may be good for the conscience, but Oreos taste a lot better."

-Robert Redford