Graduating Seniors Both Ready, Fearful Over Their Futures

Their slogan is simple and catchy, and succinctly expresses their desire to set themselves apart from and outdo Generation X:

"We aren't just a bunch of zeros."

The future weighs heavily on the Class of 2000 like no class since 1965. That was the year graduating seniors entered an era of civil rights protests and an escalating Vietnam War, and Time Magazine dubbed them "better educated and more seriously motivated than ever before."

Members of the Class of 2000 say they feel saddled with similar expectations. They are expected to get good jobs. They are expected to improve race relations on campus. They are expected to tackle problems such as teen pregnancy, drinking and drug use that have defeated generations of socially concerned Americans.

And they are expected to make a difference in their community.

They say they are ready for the challenge.

But they are scared too.

They are standing on the edge of adulthood, and they are anxious about their next step. They don't know if they will be able to change the world. They don't even know if they will be able to take care of themselves.

After all, they are only 17 years old.

And besides, they have a lot on their minds. They are counting the days until graduation. They are frantically filling out college applications and trying to line up summer jobs. They are wondering how to survive a few more months of mom and dad, while worrying how they will ever live without them. And they are figuring out who to ask to the senior prom and how to win the class spirit competition.

"People think we're supposed to be ahead of our time and better than other classes because we are the Class of 2000," Nordhoff High School senior Jessie Hawkins said. "But I don't really think we're different from any other class. We just happened to be born in 1982 or 1983."

As a group, the Ventura County students in this story have a wide range of interests and skills.

There are student body presidents, peer counselors, cheerleaders and actors. Some are graduating with 4.0 grade point averages, while others are scrambling to get enough credits to finish with their classmates.

They are white, black, Latino and Asian, and represent the changing ethnic makeup of Ventura County.

They hold jobs at fast-food restaurants, golf courses, ice cream shops and garages. And they want to be auto mechanics, teachers, police officers and engineers.

Class Totals Nearly 10,000