In David Brooks' latest NYT column, It's Not About You, he implores recent college grades to shed the ethos of the Baby Boomer generation. "Embrace your dreams" and "find your passion" have long been the rally cry of the Summer of Love crowd. It's striking that the same people who were charged to "ask not what your country could do for [them]" are the very ones who sought to stake their own claim on the world with rugged individualism. Ayn Rand haunts us still.
While life is certainly hard--and each person might say that their current season is the hardest yet--I've always contended that the post-graduation, mid-20s years are the toughest. You’re either a jobless college grad with very little prospects or you ejected into the work force right out of high school and face a bleak uphill battle to attain middle class status. Many of these folk are going it alone without partners or spouses. Many don't belong to a community outside of a few drinking buddies--certainly nothing like a service club or a church. Many have aging parents whose own career paths are entering the twilight years and job opportunities beyond that are flagging. We’re living in a catch-as-catch-can culture. Good luck "embracing that passion."
Brooks writes:
Most successful young people don’t look inside and then plan a life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life. A relative suffers from Alzheimer’s and a young woman feels called to help cure that disease. A young man works under a miserable boss and must develop management skills so his department can function. Another young woman finds herself confronted by an opportunity she never thought of in a job category she never imagined. This wasn’t in her plans, but this is where she can make her contribution.
For the generation of students who have always had a roadmap for where they were going: from primary school to junior high and high school (or prep school) to college and on and on, this sudden engagement with "open source" life is jarring. Re-inventing is difficult. It takes time. There are no instruction manuals, although many authors have crafted them.
If you find yourself in this place, take heart. You aren't the first. Be a part of something bigger than yourself. In the process, I'll bet you'll find who it was that you were looking for.
While life is certainly hard--and each person might say that their current season is the hardest yet--I've always contended that the post-graduation, mid-20s years are the toughest. You’re either a jobless college grad with very little prospects or you ejected into the work force right out of high school and face a bleak uphill battle to attain middle class status. Many of these folk are going it alone without partners or spouses. Many don't belong to a community outside of a few drinking buddies--certainly nothing like a service club or a church. Many have aging parents whose own career paths are entering the twilight years and job opportunities beyond that are flagging. We’re living in a catch-as-catch-can culture. Good luck "embracing that passion."
Brooks writes:
Most successful young people don’t look inside and then plan a life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life. A relative suffers from Alzheimer’s and a young woman feels called to help cure that disease. A young man works under a miserable boss and must develop management skills so his department can function. Another young woman finds herself confronted by an opportunity she never thought of in a job category she never imagined. This wasn’t in her plans, but this is where she can make her contribution.
For the generation of students who have always had a roadmap for where they were going: from primary school to junior high and high school (or prep school) to college and on and on, this sudden engagement with "open source" life is jarring. Re-inventing is difficult. It takes time. There are no instruction manuals, although many authors have crafted them.
If you find yourself in this place, take heart. You aren't the first. Be a part of something bigger than yourself. In the process, I'll bet you'll find who it was that you were looking for.
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