Graduates can look to movies for answers

The end of one's college career is a very surreal experience. For the last four years, students may have only focused on the prospect of graduation, being done with school and moving on to the real world.

Others don't look at school as something to get out of the way. Many see the college atmosphere as reality and the career world as a fantasy. Come graduation day, those who have gotten comfortable in their student status view the events going on around them as they might a movie, continuing in this manner as they look for employment and build relationships outside the college hierarchy.

This may not get much done, but movies can teach us nearly as much about life as experience can. Two films that convey these elements of the post-college lifestyle are "Reality Bites" and "The Graduate."

"Bites" focuses on Winona Ryder as '90s college grad Lalaina, whose hopes of being a filmmaker are dashed on the rocks as she finds breaking into the industry to be full of compromising humiliation, from working as an assistant to a talk show host to getting her work embarrassingly re-edited by her boyfriend, played by director Ben Stiller.

"The Graduate" launched Dustin Hoffman to fame as awkward Benjamin Braddock, completely unmotivated to put his newly obtained degree to use. Instead he starts a tryst with the older Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), which compounds in complication as he falls in love with her daughter (Katharine Ross).

Although hardly every moment of these films is relatable - How many times have you successfully disrupted a wedding or started a temporary gasoline service? - the college crowd can identify with the feelings of alienation, lack of preparation and romantic woes of characters who are in a transitional phase. The reason why is simple. It's normal.

So, as you exit the stage during your commencement and feel the pressure of reality pounding your chest, there's only one word to remember, and it's not "plastics": "relax."