My son just graduated from a prestigious East Coast university – a double major with honors. Here's the part where I am supposed to tell you about his lucrative new job with Company X, about the adorable young woman he met at college to whom he might someday be engaged, and about the future of his that is so bright – yes, he's gonna have to wear shades.

Well, none of that is the case. He is moving to a university town he doesn't know just to decompress, if you will, from his strenuous undergraduate studies and to find an odd job. He will think about graduate school. He has no girlfriend and never did during college. On top of that, he hardly ever wears sunglasses because they are a bother to carry around.

But his future is bright – maybe not high-noon-in-the-desert bright, but bordering on a compulsion to squint.

As his mother, I am proud of him even though the nature of my bragging isn't necessarily in step with other mothers of college graduates. I can't even begin to guess what his career path will be now that the diploma hangs on the wall with his liberal arts credentials.

I know that the going will be slow in this sluggish economy and that bright young adults like my son -- without specific training in our country's undermanned professions -- are at a disadvantage, that employers often can't know the intelligence with which they can tackle the most unexpected projects.

Through the privilege of being his mother, though, I can brag about a number of my son's qualities – refined through college – that will carry him into a bright future one of these days.

For one, he has a sense of responsibility about his possessions. He acquires only the basic necessities and treats each possession as if it's precious metal. I saw that trait coming years ago, when he organized his Matchbox cars and colored blocks and wouldn't let anyone touch them.

For another, he knows how to clean a house, tending to each speck of dust with a well-used microfiber cloth. He was the kid who did his chores, from cleaning the toilet to sweeping leaves into a lawn bag.

And there's more:

He might not have a girlfriend, but he has several friends who are girls and he cherishes those relationships, many of which started in high school. Whether he had romantic notions about any of them, I'll never know. The contacts list in his cellphone, though, is equally divided among guys and gals. (I snooped!)

In addition, he knows more about the principles of feminism than I do, thanks to a few feminist studies classes in college, which no one forced him to take.

Speaking of his respect for the opposite sex, he continues to indulge his older sister's need for phone calls and for the latest news in his life, even though she gave him a hard time when the two of them were growing up.

His ties to family extend to his elderly grandmother, for whom he always shows concern.

Around family, he hardly ever loses his temper, even when we are pressing him for details on his life or offering unsolicited advice. He was the "easy" baby, and that good disposition will stay with him for life.

Not surprisingly, he was often the teacher's pet through grade school. He received good grades (which helped him win a scholarship to that prestigious university) and he became a bookworm early in life. His bookshelves are perfectly organized and display a bibliophile's dream. Later in his college career, he introduced me to writers like Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace and Jonathan Franzen.

He buys used books, of course, because he is frugal to the point of cutting his own hair, buying secondhand clothes and checking for sales at grocery stores, among other things.

And how did I bring up a son who is so principled? He boycotts certain products and refuses to watch a certain news channel, claiming it's slanted. He won't even watch normal programming on the affiliated network, so he grew up without watching a well-known cartoon that all of his friends were watching.

Happily surveying all these traits, though, I see that my brilliant son might just be able to combine his personality quirks, his book smarts and his liberal arts degree into any number of careers. Hmmm, I thinking diplomat, professor, attorney ….

But he will go his own way. I know he will, and I am OK with that.

In the meantime, a mother like me – with a jobless college graduate -- can still brag, right?