By AMANDA MEADE

Scene/Mix Editor

By now, we should be sick of hearing about how terrible the economy is. The media and their talks about the “economic meltdown” can’t help anyone’s confidence in life.

No one knows when our economic woes will end. No one knows if they actually ever will. Maybe we’ll all just learn to cope with our problems.

With that in mind, I offer the smartest thing for my generation, to succeed and get through these times: an education. Yes, it might be several times harder to pay for a college education now than it was two years ago, but it is just as necessary if we want to succeed in the future.

According to Wickedlocal.com, this economy isn’t hindering college applicants, the number of applications is increasing. Many top-rate competitive colleges like Harvard, Dartmouth, the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan have all said that their applicant pools were significantly up this year.

Yes, school is expensive. You’ve probably gotten your hours cut at work, or maybe even lost your jobs. But, there are so many different ways to pay for tuition. It isn’t the most appealing, the thought of paying off thousands of dollars after you graduate, but student loans are an option. Take a few minutes out of your day and apply for some scholarships. Fill out your FAFSA forms. Find out if you qualify for any of the grants that the school is offering.

Most importantly, master your craft. Find a career that might still be around 20 years from now. Find ways to innovate, to make your career better than anyone has ever seen. Our generation is going to have to clean up this mess, and hopefully there will be some of us who can prevent it from happening again.