Let’s face it, now’s a scary time to graduate.

Entering the gaping maw of a bear market that would make a “grolar bear” (or “pizzly,” a real hybrid of a grizzly and polar bear) look like Yogi Bear, even the more upbeat among us have to acknowledge that times are rather tough and will probably get tougher before they get better.

You’ve heard this all before, of course. “If you go into what I call a bubble boom, every bubble bursts,” Margaret Thatcher said. Well, our bubble burst: bye-bye boom times.

But that doesn’t mean we need to freak out. Indeed, that’s probably the very worst thing we can do, especially right now, at the end of winter quarter.

No, this is not the Great Depression. Yes, it is a recession, perhaps the worst one since our parents were our age. No, we won’t be eating rats, and no, we won’t be eaten by metaphorical rats.

Ultimately, how “bad” the economy gets is a matter of perspective — eventually, all recessions end. In our nation’s past, there aren’t any exceptions to this historical rule.

So it’s one thing to be afraid, it’s quite another to allow yourself to embrace the poking fingers of the ruthless hand of fear, to sit and simmer in the silly sauce of needless, irrational worry. If we do that, while we’re busy getting steamed like wrinkly, worried wontons in the Hot Springs of Horror, we will let the awesome opportunities that we have as Americans pass us by.

We may not get rich, but we are free, and we’re meant to live free from fear, because that’s the best way to live. We’ve already been given freedom of religion, speech, assembly and the press by those who came before us. With these as our foundations, what do we have to complain about?

Yes, we may have lost the most superfluous of things — financial security — but just for the moment. Really, if you can buy it, is it really that important? I’m guessing the answer is probably “no.” Yes, having a job so you can buy anything at all (or pay for little things like food and shelter) is, of course, essential.

But I bet that smart Huskies like ourselves will be fine in the end and that most of us will get to where we want to be, as long as we have the patience and foresight to keep building on our dreams and aspirations one day at a time. Ask anyone older than you about how life takes time to unfold, and you’ll see what I mean.

As Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose application of the word. Consider the flea: incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage.”

Let’s not be fleas, please. We’re bigger than that. Don’t let your worries worry you; live your life, it’s a gift, a one-time deal and a very precious thing.

So, as Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Reach columnist Will Mari at opinion@dailyuw.com.