Right now, when a lot of people are going back to school to prepare themselves for a new career as the recession ends, your thoughts should be about what careers will be the first to recover and offer job security post-recession.

There are certain careers that are unlikely to lose their job security, even if the recession continues.  Certain things, such as nurses, are in pretty high demand and are unlikely to change during the current economic troubles, due to the nature of the job.  A recession will make people more hesitant to spend money, but they will still get sick the same as ever.  All that money they're saving on unnecessary stuff is so that they can pay their more important bills, such as medical bills.

Then there are other industries that will make a comeback as the economy recovers.  I expect one of these will be the real estate industry, so related careers -- real estate agents, mortgage brokers, etc. -- will all be in demand once again.  And since no one is expecting that to be the case, I think you'll find that the industry will be under-served, allowing qualified people an opportunity to hit it big in the beginning.

The reason why I think the real estate industry will be among the first to recover is simple: because it was the first to fall apart.  There is every reason to believe that economic recovery will happen in the same order as the downfall: first the real estate market, then the stock market, then jobs and the retail economy.

So if you were always interested in pursuing a mortgage education, now would be a good time.  Mortgage brokers are abandoning ship like crazy, since right now there's not much business to be found -- but as the real estate market begins its recovery, those with loan officer training will be valuable commodities, made all the more so because people with the right qualifications will be so much harder to find.

It was one of the proudest moments of my adult life when our son, Steve, graduated from college.  It seemed like a great beginning for his adult life, and a good finish for all those years of helping and encouraging him through school.  He did the work and deserved the diploma that he received.

But, we wanted to get him something special for his graduation, something that would help him to remember that moment of his life forever.  Alice and I talked about it at some length, and we decided that we would get him a college diploma frame and take it down to the diploma framing store so that he would have something to hang on his wall at home, or at his new job.

The hardest part was going to be sneaking the diploma out of his house so that we could make his gift for him.  Luckily Jennifer, his girlfriend, was happy to help us out and we were able to get everything done.

We are giving it to him next week when they come for dinner and I bet that he will be surprised.  All I can say is that I am so proud of him though it is sad to see my little boy all grown up.