As a senior in college, about to graduate this coming May and eagerly waiting to join the real world, I have heard plenty from President Barack Obama over the past few years on his ideas of hope, change and moving forward. The hard truth is that my immediate future upon graduation looks bleak.

Half of college graduates are unemployed or underemployed, and what’s more audacious is the youth unemployment rate is sitting at a dismal 16.4 percent. The United States’s national debt has just recently topped $16 trillion, more than $5 trillion of it having been accrued under the Obama administration. This is simply unacceptable.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan understand this massive debt is a drag on job creation; they believe in a path for America that results in lower taxes, less government, less spending and more economic growth. Romney has spent his life creating good, high-paying jobs; helping start and build successful businesses; and turning around failing ones, including well-known companies like Bright Horizons, Staples and Sports Authority. Romney’s vision is for America to be a place where education, hard work and thrift are congratulated and rewarded. A place where free enterprise is nurtured and success is celebrated instead of attacked. A place where government works for us, and not the other way around.

I cannot stress enough how harmful this president’s fiscally irresponsible policies have been and continue to be, especially at a time when the youth and college graduates of this country are about to enter a world devoid of hope, change and jobs. So much for “forward.”