the prolonged children generation
i am obsessed with making plans. i have plans on plans on plans. little plans and big plans, plans for tomorrow, plans for next year. i love achieving all these little goals and then having another one. it's my need for gratification i think, that desire to cross things off the check-list of life, that spurs me on to always having the next thing in place.
FINALLY the big game plan is here! it's happening! it's lawyer time! ya!
but going into the world at long last and being a real life grownup with real life responsibilities is well...it's just not what i've been trained for. i have been in school since i was five years old! do you know how old i am now!? 26! that is TWENTY ONE YEARS. i have never taken a break from academia, either. some summers i even did summer school and whatnot! and now i realize i'm meant to have real life responsibilities and stay in the same place and do adult things. and furthermore, i realize that somebody else's dollahbillz instead of mine (and by 'mine', i mean the government of canada and scotiabank's) will be on the line. and the clients will be real, i realize. so like...don't mess it up.
this is, for obvious reasons, a little frightening. i suggest it's probably been a little worrisome for all time. even back in the days when people had a faster and more streamlined ascent to the actual world of work and real-life responsibilities it probably ignited a little trepidation in the hearts of young men and women. i think the trouble here lies in the fact that, as i said before, i am not reared for this. i'm not sure any of us are anymore. not really. we are a generation of young people in this perpetual state of childhood, this drawn out infancy of being cottled and hand-held. we are prolonged children in prolonged childhoods.
first of all, i should note that i don't necessarily think this is bad. we are a generation that has also been told for years that a bachelor degree won't suffice anymore. we need so much more than that. we need bachelor's and master's and professional degrees and performance diplomas and writing credentials and trades and then trade enhancers and we're journeymen three times over with a resume all the way down our legs of the jobs we've worked on. some of us have been thinking PhD before we even left high school! we've been told we gotta get out there and play the game this way and so we have.
i was chatting with a friend not long ago and she told me her dad is also educated up and down several wazoos, has a PhD and all that. but when her papa was getting all this formal education, he was also married and had a job and had a young family. while we get our massive educations, we're on a different trajectory on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis - lots of mini-celebrations with bottles of wine and dinners out. mid afternoon sighs as we struggle against the adversity of having to decipher all the words on the computer screens in front of us. coffees at starbucks while we study, just diving into that line of credit head first.
oh right - the debt. this is another reason why this everlasting state of maturation i'm in will continue. before i can do anything i need to deal with this pile of debt beside me. the prolonged children of this generation see drops in the bucket as we make the most of our youth. we'll deal with our debt just as soon as we graduate college! although, that might mean putting off things like buying a house or starting a family...
oh yes - family. we are a generation obsessed with the pill and fighting against procreation with iron fists and body armour and harsh drugs and chemicals. seemingly fixated on meeting as many people as possible and abandoning the ones who aren't the right fit. what does that even mean anymore? is there some magical relationship out there in which every day you wake up so fulfilled and perfectly content? am i meant to be told i'm smart and pretty and funny every day? am i meant to be perfect and make lunches and call every night at ten? and always be on, kind, helpful, ears wide open? and if we do all these things is it perfect? and if it isn't perfect does that mean it isn't worth it? my friend told me her grandma thinks we are a generation that thinks if it's not perfect now, there's something out there that will be, so we jump ship and run to the next hoping that the perfect thing is coming soon. like love is just an on-the-horizon type thing. perhaps she's right.
history lovers always seem to be saying, we look to our history so we can learn to better our future. maybe we are all striving so much and for so long for education, at the sake of debt, for that perfect love because we look back at the moments before us, at our parents' moments, at our grandparents' moments and we think, well, what have we learned? that there are different routes to the same end? that we are young - forever 21, at least at heart? that there's so much more to learn and to see and to do, so why are we rushing to the finish line?
maybe i'm generalizing too much - perhaps i just observe myself in my own surroundings. i recently moved back home,all tuckered out from a big year at law school, so cecil the great came to ontario to drive home with me - you know, so i could take naps in the car and whatnot. yet i look back on my mom and dad when they were my age - married, with jobs, with kids, running small businesses, writing musicals in their spare time. and here i am. scared to death about starting the job for which i was trained.
so perhaps it is just me. perhaps I am the prolonged child and i just need someone to tell me to puh-leezeeee grow up! get an extra cup of joe and get movin'! for good, for bad, for better, for worse, for older, for younger - my youth will just not seem to end.
FINALLY the big game plan is here! it's happening! it's lawyer time! ya!
but going into the world at long last and being a real life grownup with real life responsibilities is well...it's just not what i've been trained for. i have been in school since i was five years old! do you know how old i am now!? 26! that is TWENTY ONE YEARS. i have never taken a break from academia, either. some summers i even did summer school and whatnot! and now i realize i'm meant to have real life responsibilities and stay in the same place and do adult things. and furthermore, i realize that somebody else's dollahbillz instead of mine (and by 'mine', i mean the government of canada and scotiabank's) will be on the line. and the clients will be real, i realize. so like...don't mess it up.
this is, for obvious reasons, a little frightening. i suggest it's probably been a little worrisome for all time. even back in the days when people had a faster and more streamlined ascent to the actual world of work and real-life responsibilities it probably ignited a little trepidation in the hearts of young men and women. i think the trouble here lies in the fact that, as i said before, i am not reared for this. i'm not sure any of us are anymore. not really. we are a generation of young people in this perpetual state of childhood, this drawn out infancy of being cottled and hand-held. we are prolonged children in prolonged childhoods.
first of all, i should note that i don't necessarily think this is bad. we are a generation that has also been told for years that a bachelor degree won't suffice anymore. we need so much more than that. we need bachelor's and master's and professional degrees and performance diplomas and writing credentials and trades and then trade enhancers and we're journeymen three times over with a resume all the way down our legs of the jobs we've worked on. some of us have been thinking PhD before we even left high school! we've been told we gotta get out there and play the game this way and so we have.
i was chatting with a friend not long ago and she told me her dad is also educated up and down several wazoos, has a PhD and all that. but when her papa was getting all this formal education, he was also married and had a job and had a young family. while we get our massive educations, we're on a different trajectory on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis - lots of mini-celebrations with bottles of wine and dinners out. mid afternoon sighs as we struggle against the adversity of having to decipher all the words on the computer screens in front of us. coffees at starbucks while we study, just diving into that line of credit head first.
oh right - the debt. this is another reason why this everlasting state of maturation i'm in will continue. before i can do anything i need to deal with this pile of debt beside me. the prolonged children of this generation see drops in the bucket as we make the most of our youth. we'll deal with our debt just as soon as we graduate college! although, that might mean putting off things like buying a house or starting a family...
oh yes - family. we are a generation obsessed with the pill and fighting against procreation with iron fists and body armour and harsh drugs and chemicals. seemingly fixated on meeting as many people as possible and abandoning the ones who aren't the right fit. what does that even mean anymore? is there some magical relationship out there in which every day you wake up so fulfilled and perfectly content? am i meant to be told i'm smart and pretty and funny every day? am i meant to be perfect and make lunches and call every night at ten? and always be on, kind, helpful, ears wide open? and if we do all these things is it perfect? and if it isn't perfect does that mean it isn't worth it? my friend told me her grandma thinks we are a generation that thinks if it's not perfect now, there's something out there that will be, so we jump ship and run to the next hoping that the perfect thing is coming soon. like love is just an on-the-horizon type thing. perhaps she's right.
history lovers always seem to be saying, we look to our history so we can learn to better our future. maybe we are all striving so much and for so long for education, at the sake of debt, for that perfect love because we look back at the moments before us, at our parents' moments, at our grandparents' moments and we think, well, what have we learned? that there are different routes to the same end? that we are young - forever 21, at least at heart? that there's so much more to learn and to see and to do, so why are we rushing to the finish line?
maybe i'm generalizing too much - perhaps i just observe myself in my own surroundings. i recently moved back home,all tuckered out from a big year at law school, so cecil the great came to ontario to drive home with me - you know, so i could take naps in the car and whatnot. yet i look back on my mom and dad when they were my age - married, with jobs, with kids, running small businesses, writing musicals in their spare time. and here i am. scared to death about starting the job for which i was trained.
so perhaps it is just me. perhaps I am the prolonged child and i just need someone to tell me to puh-leezeeee grow up! get an extra cup of joe and get movin'! for good, for bad, for better, for worse, for older, for younger - my youth will just not seem to end.
posted by emily at 12:08 PM
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