In 64 days, I will be joining the ranks of the unemployed. Not by choice or because I have plans for some sort of self-fulfilling volunteer work, but because the American economy — in all its stunning stagnation — has created a hiring environment that is about as hospitable as a perverse combination of the planet Hoth and the Forbidden Forest.

This leaves a 21-year-old mechanical engineer with an inclination toward prose in quite a bind. What do you do when the world — by way of many, many hiring officers — has told you that your services simply aren’t valued right now? How do you respond when the traditional hirers — including several Fortune 500 companies in the last month — suggest you look elsewhere or try again when the economy picks up?

I’m not really sure how to progress. But what I do know is that May’s graduates are in for one tough haul. Every economic downturn has its ills and lingering effects, but this one is a new beast.

Not since the Great Depression have Americans, in such large numbers, been relegated to the real possibility of long-term, debilitating unemployment — or equally as dreadful, underemployment. Thousands of students at N.C. State and across the country will walk into that mayhem in just a little more than two months, preparing to face weeks, and possibly months, of rejection.

The worst part may be that the longer an alumnus goes without finding employment, the worse his or her prospects become. Every graduating class that follows me — especially if I fail to obtain a job — becomes competition in the hunt and will likely appeal more to perspective employers because the graduates won’t have been sitting unemployed for six months. It’s not really equitable and probably doesn’t provide a realistic expectation of abilities, but it’s the reality I’ll be facing.

The clock is ticking; come December, my prospects will start looking even worse.

I’m not going to say I’m desperate for employment, in a worst-case scenario — at this point a distinct possibility — I can take a ride north and live with my parents in the Washington, D.C.-area for a little while until I find my feet, but many others won’t be so lucky.

Many of my friends don’t have the same hereditary safety net to fall back on. I might be unemployed, but I’m one of the lucky ones — I have three warm meals a day and a double bed waiting for me if I need it.

Spring break starts this evening for students. And I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but there are a lot of us who are going to be sweating bullets these next couple months.

The pundits and politicians can talk about the job crisis until they’re blue in the face, but as far as I can tell none of them are actually unemployed.

The politicians can feign empathy, but until they’ve stood where hundreds of my fellow graduating seniors have stood, they can’t possibly understand what this generation faces.

It’s not the story of the year or the decade. This is going to be the story of many people’s lives and — for once, ironically enough — I’m not sure I have a witticism to cover the true depression of facing unemployment.

Enjoy your break, but don’t get too comfortable — the real world is waiting.