That is likely the most clichéd penning I have ever written. I wanted to grab you attention, to make you think, “Oh boy, what is Mike talking about now … He even included another sexual reference.” I am talking about a big, vague, daunting, ambiguous thing called “The Future.”

I initially started to write about searching for a job. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized I would just be bitching about how I have been a student for my whole life and suddenly that is going to change. Although I have worked practically full-time for the last six or seven years besides acting as a student, the idea of “going off into the world” and to some career is daunting. I understand why so many students just go straight into graduate school – it’s easier to comprehend.

But you don’t want to listen to my scattered thoughts about post-graduation (which currently include “driving until I’m ready to come home again,” “backpacking until it snows too much to continue” and “not growing up”). I would become repetitive. I would be “navel-gazing” to the extreme. This could not be even remotely why you read my column. You must read it for something better, like how you can relate or come up with material for the hate mail I receive.

So, let’s extrapolate out to this big concept of “The Future.” I figured I could incorporate the upcoming Valentine’s Day – what better example of “The Future” than relationships and job searching? You may be celebrating with your new-found love and soul mate, on whom you stake your future and all that you desire in life. You may be recently “alone” and “free,” considering how the future could ever look so bleak without consistent sex (and I suppose someone to talk to as well). You may be wondering what the hell you do after you walk on May 7, 2011 (or, if you’re like me, skip the restructured, super-long ceremony and already hit the road).

The problem with the way we view “The Future” is that we see it as some distant point, one that we don’t ever exactly reach. I disagree. In my quest for a job that allows me to sleep until 11 a.m. every day, start drinking beer at lunch, earn a paycheck for spending time in the mountains and (this is such a crazy idea) actually enjoy what I do for a career, “The Future” does not seem quite so far away. In fact, it seems like it’s a sequence of daily decisions and actually readily at hand.

In order to have more of a point than “The Future is yours for the taking!” I offer this: It’s your life. Figure out what the hell you want and figure out how to get there.

Read: “The Grand Design,” by Stephen Hawking. And I couldn’t help it – listen to the album “Futures” from Jimmy Eat World.

Mike is well aware that he is critical, cynical and brutally honest, often at the expense of being called a jerk. If you disagree with him, make sure he knows by e-mailing The Exponent at letters@exponent.montana.edu. Fan mail, however, can be sent direct via his Facebook page.