Adulthood is hard, but nothing worthwhile is easy. (Except, perhaps, Love, but even an easy love has hardships attached) I am enjoying the toughness of my emerging adulthood. I wonder if every generation felt as though, "we are adults now and its our turn to decide what that means."
I feel as though my adulthood will be ordinarily extraordinary. My peers will each lead an extraordinary life, opposed to the extraordinarily ordinary adulthoods of our elders. There is no offense to my parent's generation; I ride upon the coattails of the reality-stricken idealists of the 60s and 70s. If it wasn't for you first wave hippies, forging the path to practical enlightenment and grounded idealism, making responsible compromise after responsible compromise to raise me, I would not be able to do what I am doing now.
What I am doing is not finding a job, so instead, creating the job I can not find. I was taught to follow my dreams, to work hard to turn my dreams into reality. My dream is to Write, how original. I have no reason to believe that this dream is unattainable. Every life goal I have set for myself so far has been met (I was an exchange student, I graduated college, I interned in India.). I have tried to find a job, I have routinely applied to jobs across the spectrum, from Barista to Banker, Cashier to Congressional Aide. I don't take it personally that I am not being hired, many of my peers are in the same boat. It takes time. In the meantime, I am taking action into my own hands. I am self-employed as a starving artist.
It is what many of my fellow Detroiters are doing, and we believe this desperation job creation can evolve into a model for the future. We are getting creative. We are good at living without, and even better at splurging in the right moments. We are bartering, cooperating, volunteering, and are we ever networking!
Have faith baby boomers! You have taught us well. We are more focused and less drug induced in our third decade on earth. We are creative and courageous, but not disillusioned. You taught us to chase our dreams, but keep our feet firmly on the ground. That is what we are doing.
Thank you, baby-boomers, for sending us to college. The value of an education is the best gift you could have given us, because, in this high-tech economy and global marketplace, we need our brains more than anything else. College was a place where we could make mistakes, outside of the home, but within a safety bubble of the University Campus. We learned through our classes, but also through our independence. Our prolific professors taught us, but so did our frustraited landlords. So did the campus cops and our many, many, many friends.When we fell, it was into a safety net dubbed "the college years". Now that we are in the proverbial real world, when we fall, it will not be to our deaths. We learned our lessons, now we apply them.
