What is the next stage of life after college graduation student during a pandemic?

A lot of college senior this year graduated on online. In fact, a family friend of mines did not even attend their online graduation ceremony because they felt like there was no point. This same feeling, the feeling of having no direction or income is what a lot of college graduates during this year feel. Searching for any form of job right out of college is always hard but now trying to do that during a global pandemic and an economic meltdown seems even more hopeless. Many students, this year have either lost their jobs on campus, around town, internships, and to make matters even worse they are entering the workforce at a time when more than 22 million individuals are filling for unemployment. What can college graduates do now that the pandemic have made things more difficult than usual? Well I was listening to NPR on “Graduating in a pandemic: advice for the anxious post college job search” and I thought that the advice experts gave were really useful so here are some advice that experts have for college graduates as well as students on how to be less anxious about the future. Experts, say (1) be flexible, by exploring other industries, those who are thriving right now (2) lean on your school for support, by talking to career advisers, counselor, or mentors that can help you sort out thoughts so that you can come up with some form of direction to move forward because these individuals do have access to all kinds of tools (3) focus on gaining new skills, by using up this time that you have to explore gaps in your skill set as well as just excelling in a prior skill set that you have (4) allow for yourself to have time to adjust; rather than focusing or dwelling on the long term plan, put it off for now and just focus on what is in front of you. These four advices is something that actually a lot of us can use to be more hopeful that things will work out eventually. The most helpful advice but yet hard to do so that my mentor told me was just that I should be patient because everyone is having a rough time right now and all we can do is just offer each other support and encouragement. Hence, instead of stressing about the future, have an open mind, do some self growth, and focus on what is most important to you right now.