I graduated from college in 1994, during a recession. I remember the overriding tone of the commencement speeches on graduation day as being loaded with pep talks and loosely veiled in jokes about what Liberal Arts majors were going to do in the real world when there were no jobs.

I was pretty nervous about graduating, finding my path, earning a living -- I’ll admit it. I wanted nothing more than to return to college for another year, and stay safe in my cocoon of higher education while the world and its finances all figured itself out.

Certainly this year’s graduates have heard similar pep talks and loosely veiled jokes, plus, I’d imagine, a more than a few blunt forecasts of their dismal near-term opportunities. The class of 2009 can’t just sit and wait for the job market to recover as we did in the middle 90s, they will need to help redefine it.

As if figuring out what one wants to be in life isn’t hard enough; now forging an unchartered path gets thrown in the mix as well. No pressure.

Some will find this daunting. Others will rise to the challenge. Both reactions seem pretty normal to me.

Theirs is a future where improvisation is a marketable skill. Where creativity, the willingness to take risks, and the ability to respond quickly may be the key to their success.

Their future, in many ways, is probably completely counter to how you’ve survived in the workforce. So how do you help them through it?

My gut-instinct-only two cents is this: if there is a teenager on your couch right now who needs a pep talk – a real parental, friend-like pep talk, not the commencement speech variety – throw all your own preconceived ideas out the window and figure things out together.

Whatever choices the recent college grad makes – whether to explore new business models, be entrepreneurs, help save the planet or get a graduate degree – the message that matters most has to be that the possibilities are theirs to own, and that the only “bad” choice is allowing fear to stop them from exploring.

Who knows, maybe some of their journey will inspire the next chapter of your own.