Talkin bout my generation
If any of you have read the NY Times article titled “What is it about 20 somethings” then you found comfort in it, noting that you are not alone in your postponement of career and adulthood. In fact, its a national pandemic that crosses racial boundaries, socio-economic boundaries and gender boundaries. I can speak for myself, that my year-and-some of working at this PR firm has permitted me AT LEAST a year of straight hanging. In fact, I’ve planned it out. Quit, travel, hang, travel, maybe move somewhere…LA? San Fran? Saaaanta Fe? Dont worry. I have big plans for myself. I am going to do something great. But I just need some time to figure it out.
As the article points out, us 20-somethings feel pretty self-entitled when it comes to the working life. We want shorter hours, more money, less responsibility but a higher title. We want to be doing exactly what we want to be doing and wont settle for less. As our parents generation reiterate the impossibility of this, particularly as we are recovering from the hardest economic hit since the GD and blah blah blah, we defend ourselves: no, mom and dad, you are wrong in this case. We ARE special. And its true.
Robin Marantz-Henig, the author of the article, is jealous of us 20 somethings, because we are different than our predecessors. We are the generation that literally had it all at our fingertips; access to information, knowledge of technology, plus we grew up/are growing up in a time where traveling is the status-quo. With travel costs low for students, it is just a given, an inevitability, that if you want to be, you can be well-traveled. This is all relevant because it feeds into our desire to be bigger and better all the time. We are not going to be satisfied with an entry-level job for too long. Our insatiable hunger will drive us to search and to keep searching for the ideal job. And yes, we are flakey. But I prefer to call us Renaissance people.
I have high hopes for my generation. Remember Obama’s “Change” campaign? Who do you think that was directed to? Me and my peers. Because we are the future. And we are the first generation that has been growing up in the wake of the internet, in the first “information-based society”. My generations’ refusal of settling for a mediocre, uninspiring job, is a good thing. It means that we want to enter the workforce as excited and passionate individuals, not just as drones. Our baby-boomer parents are all like, look at us, we were the wealthiest, the most intelligent, we made change happen. Yeah, look at the statistics, padres. You also have mad-high divorce rates, plus you gave birth to us ambivalent creatures.
Also, Virginia Woolf wrote an essay called a “Room of One’s Own” about how women with talents should receive a stipend to live and hang to develop these talents. I think we should implement this. Just sayin.
The photo below is me in a gator suit at the Harvard-Yale Game @ Harvard. Just mixing fun and education…
