As I pig on Boy Bawang while watching the return of Wowowee after a month of hiatus, I can’t help but liken the plight of the graduates like me to that of the contestants in the ill-fated Ultra stampede.

The sight of half a million graduates queuing for a job opening with a piece of resume on one hand and a sack of hope on the other never fails to remind of the ULTRA stampede. Who could forget the stampede that had claimed the lives of 74 Filipinos whose only wish was to get a crack on the 1 million grand prizes offered by the show?

The Ultra can only accommodate 18,000 people but more than 30,000 hopefuls trooped to the stadium to try their luck. The result was horrible. Like an army of ants running for dear life, many were run over and crushed to death.

With graduates far outnumbering the employment opportunities, we are likely to suffer the same fate. There are about 448,000 graduates this year but only a handful of job opportunities. The scarcity of job opportunities forces us to seek greener pasture in other countries, accept jobs that are way below our qualifications or remain "tambay’.

The career world cannot accommodate the half a million graduates of my batch but we insist to get in until we push and shove our fellow graduates. Such is the pathetic state of my generation. We are like pack of hungry wolves waiting for a thin slice of meat. It doesn’t matter who gets hurt and trampled in the stampede as long as one gets hold of that elusive job.

Another factor that triggered the deadly stampede was the distribution of limited raffle tickets. When others, especially those who have camped out near the venue days before the actual anniversary celebration learned that only chosen few had the chance to win the grand prize, a pandemonium ensued.

We graduates also need a ticket for the grand prizes, our diploma. But diploma does not assure success. It is only good as a gate pass. Without drive and determination to land a job, it’s just a piece of paper like everybody else holding. It doesn’t hold that much value unless it’s coupled with confidence and hard work.

Like the Ultra stampede, job-hunting is a test of brain and brawn. The death toll reveals that most of the casualties were women and aged, those perceived to be weak. They were helplessly crushed by the strong that were hell bent on winning the jackpot. Sadly all of them went home losers.

Like the Wowowee contestants we, graduates should be strong and well prepared so as not to be crushed by the raging competition. We have to be witty enough to highlight our strengths and conceal our weaknesses. Job hunt is the real test of survival. We have to outwit, outlast and outplay in order to survive. The last man standing gets the job.

Like them we have to endure the searing heat of the sun while queuing up for an interview and refuse the temptation of filling an empty stomach until we arrive home to save more fare for tomorrows job-hunt.

I’m not excited anymore now that our graduation is a few days away. The little excitement I had before is now replaced by a big question mark. Where do I go after our graduation? To whom will I get my daily allowance? Am I going to be another addition to the growing list of" tambay’?

I’m afraid that after graduation I’ll be reduced to mere statistics.

The fact that I’m an entrepreneurship major adds more insult to the injury. The whole country is counting on us for employment opportunities. We, entrepreneurship students are not expected to seek employment. Rather we are expected to reduce the rising unemployment rate.

True, we are trained to be employers and not to be employees. But I cant just raise capital in an instant. Don’t get me wrong but I don’t regret taking entrepreneurship course. I’m proud to be one. Given the chance of getting a crack in a get-rich-quick contest, without batting an eyelash I would grab it so that I can rise to the challenge of being an entrepreneur. But before I can be the entrepreneur that I’ve been dreaming of I have to wake up from my dream and live the glaring reality that life isn’t that simple.

I’m afraid to join the biggest game show called job-hunting but I have to audition and be counted in to be part of the list of contestants. I can’t just watch from the sideline and hope that Boy Bawang and Muncher can tide me over.

Much that I want to settle for the mediocrity to assure myself of a piece of security I cant afford to see my fellow graduates fighting tooth and nail to secure a job while I sit on our couch glued to the boob tube and contented to be labeled as "tambay".

At the end of the day only one gets the chance to hit the jackpot, leaving the others settling for a pack of Boy Bawang or Cornik as a consolation. But the game doesn’t end there. Like the popular game show one doesn’t need to hit to jack pot, to survive the stampede is just as good as hitting the jackpot.

I just pray hard that I too will survive the stampede that has become a way of life in the Philippines, the graduation stampede

(The author is a 20-year-old graduating entrepreneurship student from the University of Luzon in Dagupan City. For comments, email scubul@mb.com.ph.)