A article published in the New York Times this week has left me quite perplexed. This article titled, "What Is It About 20-Somethings?", goes into great length to try and discover the reason why the 20-someones are failing to travel the traditional cycle paved by generations before.
"The traditional cycle seems to have gone off course, as young people remain untethered to romantic partners or to permanent homes, going back to school for lack of better options, traveling, avoiding commitments, competing ferociously for unpaid internships or temporary (and often grueling) Teach for America jobs, forestalling the beginning of adult life."
I am no doctor or even a genius, but could this lack of following tradition be just the renaissance this country needs. Where has this holier than though tradition led us? The divorce rate is over 50%, unemployment rates are higher than ever, we are STILL at war, the housing market is failing, the automotive industry is bankrupt, youth education is suffering budget cuts and the government has handed out checks to stimulate the economy while simultaneously extended the time allowance for benefiting from not working. Oh and we're fat.
"Sociologists traditionally define the “transition to adulthood” as marked by five milestones: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child. In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men had, by the time they reached 30, passed all five milestones."
I may be missing something, but the tradition needs to be updated. What is wrong with gaining higher education? Since when did supporting the ones you love become shunned? What is the rush to achieve these profound milestones by the age of 30? What happens then? All the happy couples suffocated by their jobs, without time to raise their children, go on vacation, read a book, learn new things? This is not 1960.
The article prefixed with two examples of syndicated television debuts this fall is more irritating than the authors lack of providing relevancy. If the tradition was working the television industry would not be capitalizing off of this new era of so-called inadequacy in life development. Anyone else pissed they aren't considered an adult because they haven't succumbed to the perennial march from step 1-5.
Dream on 20-Somethings. Continue to decline to settle for the mindless job that keeps you away from finding the relationship that breeds love, time to actually raise your children and opportunity to better the world we all live in. Happy people equals healthy, stable and productive people. Right now we're all fat, lazy, unemployed and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I don't know about you, but any cycle "they" say I'm suppose to follow needs to be rerouted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
