Are we there yet?
Millenial Living - Will we ever get there?
Living as a “twenty-something” in this day and age is no doubt an interesting experience. We are constantly bombarded with influences from every angle and as such most of us are in constant limbo and live in confusion. It becomes even more interesting for those of us who find ourselves still trying to aspire to an idea of success that was not personally defined.
We’ve been called the generation of vipers , the selfish generation , the generation of delayed adulthood among other things but these titles are somewhat unfair given the social , political and economic context in which most of us have grown up.
Most of us will be more educated than our parents before us. That is a simple fact. We will therefore spend more time at school , delaying the career and family starting process considerably. We also grew up constantly surrounded by mass media telling us what to do , how to be , at what age we should have children , how many we should have , what the perfect life should be.
Given the financial constraints in which we have found ourselves some of us have chosen to delay much of the commitments that our parents had at our age. Our economy and the current job market are taking a toll , persons are unavailable to find jobs , are underpaid or just in a relatively unstable situation. We are also burdened with student loans as a result of the aforementioned education. Some of us will therefore have to live with our parents longer and may not be able to straddle as much “adult” responsibilities. At my age, my mother had been married for several years and was raising a 4 year old (a.k.a. me) . I am in no way ready for that situation. I can’t afford it and I have no shame in admitting that.
It’s also interesting to note that much of the family structures that we currently crave are not the ones most of us grew up with. Most of us want the families you see on television with two children and a dog..the families that seem to have everything together…families where both parents work full time and somehow always find time for each other , the children and keeping the house clean. In a word…perfect , but how realistic is this , what are the chances of us achieving this kind of perfection and also since when is that the idea of a perfect family? Why does this mean success to us? Some of us may never create that situation and some of us do not want it but why is it still a benchmark? Family is important and there are many different types of families , are any of them any better than the other once certain conditions are met?
Another thing that always throws this generation in a tail spin is the simple question….”so what are you doing with your life?….” This is usually followed by – At your age I was settled down , on my second child , working full time , didn’t live with my parents and the list goes on. If this is supposed to be motivation it isn’t , we are already struggling to cling to the values we grew up with even the ones that no longer suit or serve us.
Now i’m not against values and morals but as I grow older and hopefully more mature I come to terms with the fact that much of what I grew up thinking to be true wasn’t really true at all. It is just what I was taught to think and manipulated into thinking. Once I took control of my thoughts and the knowledge that was always present the world became more connected and more truths were brought to the fore. This generation has been given the unique opportunity of creating our lives and our futures and I don’t think we should waste it on things that no longer serve us , are not for us and will not make us happy.
Love and Light,
UltraRush