When I was 16, I had a life plan. I will admit, part of this is due to my personality. Not all 16 year olds decide they need to know exactly what they are doing and when they are doing it. But I thought I could do anything I wanted, I had worked hard, and people that followed the rules get rewarded. My time line was as follows:
Age 18: Go to college
Age 22: Graduate college and enter a PhD program
Age 25: Get married (I knew I couldn't plan when I would date someone just when I could get married)
Age 27: Graduate said PhD program
Age 28: Have first child.
Age 30: Have second child
Age 32: Have third child
Somewhere in there become a tenured professor.
An adult friend told me, "Don't let life get in the way!" I thought clearly she underestimated me. I underestimated life.
What I did not foresee, along with many others was that my generation is taking a long time to do anything. We get married later, start our careers later, buy houses later. The line where college kid ends and self-sufficient adult begins got washed away on Spring Break. The 2008 market crash made it socially acceptable, if not practically unavoidable, for college graduates to live at home while job hunting. I have friends who are 25 and married, and friends who are 25 and living like senior year of college. There is no one way to do things and no common goal. What's the American dream? 2.5 kids, white picket fence? I don't think so. I don't know what is, because my goals are different than someone else's. What I do know, is I feel like a kid trying to pay bills with my allowance. The transition to adult hood takes a decade of mistakes and magic.
Welcome to Middledom.
Age 18: Go to college
Age 22: Graduate college and enter a PhD program
Age 25: Get married (I knew I couldn't plan when I would date someone just when I could get married)
Age 27: Graduate said PhD program
Age 28: Have first child.
Age 30: Have second child
Age 32: Have third child
Somewhere in there become a tenured professor.
An adult friend told me, "Don't let life get in the way!" I thought clearly she underestimated me. I underestimated life.
What I did not foresee, along with many others was that my generation is taking a long time to do anything. We get married later, start our careers later, buy houses later. The line where college kid ends and self-sufficient adult begins got washed away on Spring Break. The 2008 market crash made it socially acceptable, if not practically unavoidable, for college graduates to live at home while job hunting. I have friends who are 25 and married, and friends who are 25 and living like senior year of college. There is no one way to do things and no common goal. What's the American dream? 2.5 kids, white picket fence? I don't think so. I don't know what is, because my goals are different than someone else's. What I do know, is I feel like a kid trying to pay bills with my allowance. The transition to adult hood takes a decade of mistakes and magic.
Welcome to Middledom.
No comments:
Post a Comment