Scrapbooking to graduation and beyond

The graduation season is wrapping up. The mints created in school colors I never knew existed will all be gone, the personalized cakes which always make me queasy when the "face" is cut into are finished, the countless helium "Grad" balloons will sink to the ground. Which means only one thing is left: Opening the graduation presents.

Besides a fully-paid college tuition, one of the best presents a new graduate can receive from his or her parents is a custom-made scrapbook.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, "scrapbook" is so popular it has moved beyond existing just as a noun and can be used as a verb. For example, "I was scrapbooking until 3 a.m. and have no brain cells left."

Today's scrapbooks put old scrapbooks to shame. When I was young, a parent could feel accomplished if all the spelling awards and report cards made it into a three-ring binder.

Today, each picture of the child is surrounded by stickers and clip art, explaining where and why and how the picture was taken. Nothing is left to the imagination about the picture.

Scrapbookers use everything from seashells to fishing lures to decorate the scrapbook pages.

Of course, this kind of creativity does not come cheap.

I've considered creating scrapbooks for each of my five children, but even if I found the time, I don't feel like taking out a small loan to do it.

For starters, you need a scrapbook, whose price will suddenly make three-ring binders look very attractive. Then you need the pages for the book. Just give up eating lunch for the week and you'll have those paid for.

Then there are the pretty-cutting scissors and the decorative paper overlays. And finally, you need the decorations ... several ... for each page ... for each book.

This is where my scrapbooks would look pitiful, primarily because I'm a cheapskate. Each page would feature the requisite picture, probably four or five pictures crammed into the space designated for one as I try to conserve pages. The one-inch by one-inch sticker would have to be precisely placed for greatest impact, since it's the only one I'll be using on the page.

At this point, I consider the documentation of my children's past a success because I've managed to get all, OK most of their pictures into photo albums.

Some day, if I'm feeling creative, if I want to go out on a limb, if I want to bust my budget, I may put a sticker on the front of each album -- and call it a scrapbook.

---

So with or without your scrapbook in hand, the graduate heads out into the world to find a job.

This may seem like an easy task: Write up resume, go on interview, accept job. But it's not that easy. A recent job search by my cousin in Kansas City should serve as what can happen during that job hunt.

She interviewed for a job opening with two different law offices. The first firm featured young, hip, relaxed lawyers, what would seem a perfect fit for a fresh, college grad. The other interview involved a not young, not hip, not relaxed attorney, not exactly what you're looking for when you are a fresh, college grad.

Returning home from the interviews, she told her dad that there was no way she could work for the second firm. Her boss would be cranky and demanding and she gleaned that just during her first meeting.

She prayed that a call would come soon from the first law firm. A few days later, a call came, but it was from the older lawyer, offering her a job.

Telling her to at least consider the offer, her dad pointed out that the older attorney's secretary had retired after working with him for 18 years, so he couldn't have been that bad.

Since he was older, that lawyer would have more contacts in the legal world, something my cousin could use in her pursuit to become a paralegal.

After learning that the "young" law office wouldn't be hiring anytime in the near future, she reluctantly accepted that position at the "older" law office.

She returned home after her first day of work bright and bubbly. Why the sudden change of heart?

Turns out that her new boss was just being "cranky and demanding" during the interview as a test. He was really a nice, considerate, older man. He figured that if she could withstand the pressure he created during their first meeting, she would be able to handle anything that he would throw at her during her job.

Besides gaining a valuable job, she learned another valuable lesson: Parents can be right, at least when it comes to getting a job.

-- Ronda Graff is glad graduation season is nearly over. She has swearing off white sheet cake, mixed nuts and color-coded mints, at least for the next year.