Roomie and I got to talking and eventually came to the question... what the hell is up with our generation? You know, the 20-maybe-early-30-something, out-in-the-real-world-for-our-first-few-years people.
It all started with an e-mail Roomie got from a friend. Friend of Roomie is thinking about switching careers and becoming a teacher. Said career change would mean at least one more year of school, to get into a field that a huge percentage of people leave before 5 years are up. But it's not just teachers. I haven't seen any numbers recently, but the average person starting their professional life right now will go through three (???) careers before they retire. Three careers. Not jobs within a field, careers. Part of that is our modern world and economy. But I still wonder if we're not infected with some kind of generational restlessness.
Roomie had a theory (no, she didn't think it might be bunnies... all you geeks who catch that reference raise your hand...); I'm going to take it, run with it, and probably mangle it beyond recognition. She said it might have something to do with us having not had any real generational adversity to deal with. There's something to be said for that. There's nothing like a huge, draft-requiring war or vast economic depression to make an entire generation appreciate what it has and want to settle down, marry it, and get into a nice pleasant non-traumatic rut. We've had no such bad luck (yet, knock on wood)... does that mean that we're never really truly appreciative of what we've got? Is that why we're a bunch of job-hopping, geographically wandering anti-homebodies? For some of use, "hometown" is a four-letter word. For others, it's OK as long as we went somewhere else for a while.
Our parents' generation had Vietnam and the associated chaos to interrupt their lives. Our grandparents' generation had the Great Depression and World War II. My peers and I have lead fairly turmoil-free lives in which war and famine happen in countries we have to look up on maps, and no one has to go off to war unless they've voluntarily signed up for the armed forces. I'd say that makes us lucky. But noooooooooooo, we're bored. With no upheaval to compare it to, we don't appreciate the cyclical patterns of everyday life.
We're always looking for the next best thing. Something has to be better (or at least different) than where we are. We associate comfortable patterns with unhealthy ruts. I'm as guilty as the next person... I'm 25 and I just now started my first "career" job. I didn't slack off during the years prior to this... I attended college, got good grades, worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer, went BACK to college to get my M.Ed... and FINALLY started my grown-up life. We're not lazy... my young-ish coworkers and I put in longer hours at school than pretty much anyone else on staff... we're just continually "in transition."
I'd really like to think that we'll figure it out, but I really hope it doesn't take some kind of generational trauma to drill it into our heads.
Or maybe I'm way off and I'm just overly pessimistic tonight.
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3 comments:
"We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives." - Tyler Durden :)
This is actually a topic I've thought a bit about recently...let's chit chat about it next time we find each other online...
And now you can hear from the older generation...You are better educated than my generation and are far more aware of what options are available to you. We didn't have internet, grew up watching only local channels, and only had access to the local newspaper. With all of the options available to you, I think it is understandable that more of you will try a different career down the road. It's not that we didn't want to, we didn't have the access as your generation does to know what is available.
I agree. I don't think our wanderlust and reluctance to settle down is a bad thing. I guess I was feeling a little cranky last night and took out out on my blog.
I think that my generation has a lot going for it. Our not wanting to settle for "OK" is definitely a positive attribute if we can rein it in to an acceptable level. Knowing outside options are available (and having the resources to pursue them) makes it easier to ensure that we end up in a place that's good for us... as long as we don't spend our lives looking rather than living. If we're always looking for the next best thing, some of us may have a tendency to miss what's great about where we're at.
Like most things in life, a little of both sides is probably the healthiest solution.
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