America just graduated a new class of high school diploma holders. Across the country and the Miss-Lou tears were shed and friends hugged goodbye as one chapter of life was closed and another set to open.

Now graduates are headed out into the great big world — whether that’s the job market, higher education or perhaps a military career.

And while hundreds of commencement speakers have, no doubt, worked to inspire dreams among the new graduates, many graduates may find it difficult to stay positive at the moment.

The fact is the world’s economy is struggling and it’s not likely to just turn on a dime anytime soon.

America, believe it or not, is probably in better shape and closer to a recovery than many other developed nations. But things here aren’t wonderful. The number of jobless is at multi-year highs and the economy is still shrinking.

Still, though, these next few years will be interesting ones for new graduates as well as the rest of us, many of whom can barely remember our own high school graduation ceremonies.

It’s got to be a bit difficult for a freshly minted college graduate to be positive at the moment.

The nation has become the global equivalent of the famous Wimpy character from the Popeye’s cartoon, only the nation isn’t borrowing hamburgers; it’s borrowing trillions of dollars.

All of that money has to be paid back at some point and it’s likely that the graduates, their children and their grandchildren will be footing the bill for decades to come.

For adults, particularly ones who are 10 or 20 years away from retirement, the realities ahead can be a bit depressing.

Taxes will likely have to be increased significantly to feed the debt burden and even with added taxes, Social Security appears to still be headed towards eventual insolvency.

What frightens many is the apparent lack of explanation to the unintended consequences of current government actions and abrupt changes of policy.

For example, in addition to question of how the debt will be repaid, the tighter automobile mileage standards seem troubling, too. It’s great that we’re looking at reducing our energy needs, lowering carbon footprints and all of that.

But how will we overcome the gasoline tax reductions that will come as a result of lowered fuel usage? Will we just keep raising the tax rates?

That and a million other questions face Americans, young and old alike.

There’s comfort, however, in knowing that Americans survived the Great Depression and came out strong on the other side.

That period of economic downturn followed by World War II led to author Tom Brokaw dubbing the young people of that generation as “The Greatest Generation.”

Further comfort comes in the words of some of the new graduates.

Cathedral School’s salutatorian Harrison Burns perhaps gave some wonderful advice — for both new graduates and older ones, too — as he addressed his fellow graduates on Friday night.

“God throws curve balls at us every day.

“Each day, every year, we have on this Earth is a gift from God,” Burns said.

It was an excellent reminder to us all.

I have to wonder how the current economic woes will shape not only the future world, but this generation of graduates, too.

If they all can understand the greater lesson explained by Burns’ comments, then we could have another Great Generation just around the corner.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.