every time i eat middle eastern food, i think about how i only want to eat that whipped garlic sauce for the rest of time. seriously. why is that so delicious? but more importantly, i'm half middle eastern. why isn't this a food that my family had on hand for holidays and other such gatherings for my entire upbringing? i'm going to go ahead and blame my grandma for that one; she did the cooking in my dad's family's house when they were growing up. it should have been on her to bring the tasty garlic so that no one can come near you for hours after the fact. seriously, cigarette breath is less potent. yet, here i am eating it with bread with not a care in the world for how i'm not going to be able to breathe near anyone for a while.
so i've mentioned before that i obsessively read news articles about how f-ed the millennial generation is. i read an article today titled generation limbo: waiting it out which i must admit is a clever title. the article talked about how recent college graduates are taking longer to start their actual careers, not surprising considering the state of the economy and the relatively non-existent job creation. with the job market looking as sick as it does, with too many people out of work or underemployed, young folks aren't getting the start they need for their careers after graduating college. i also recently read an article about how student loan debt is getting outrageous. the thing with both of these articles, while fascinating, i don't understand how it can possibly be news. then again, i suppose it's not everyone who is living this first hand. there are people who read the paper who have jobs, who came of age in the 80s or 90s when things were booming and having a college degree meant you were going to have a good paying job.
then there are me and my peers. i was recently discussing this with my friend dave. it was our grandparents generation that came of age during the great depression and everyone has heard stories of rationing sugar. our parents and the generation between us and them, the gen x-ers i can't help but slightly begrudge, had it better than the generation that came before them. and then there is us, the millennials. coming of age during "the worst recession since the great depression" (i heard that last night and it just made me mad. shouldn't we just call it a depression then? it's not like "recession" has a better implication when it means the same damn thing.) we are pretty handy at finding things for cheap. we use craig's list and ebay, perhaps taking to heart that one man's junk is another man's treasure adage. there is this whole business about living social and groupon that it seems that everyone and their unemployed friend are into. the oatmeal said it best with this comic. i can't help but wonder how this is going to impact us when we are legitimate adults. i hope it's funny. perhaps i'll start storing money in various hidden places since i don't trust banks anyway. yes, eccentricity is calling my name.
where was i going? oh right, a generation in waiting. i accidentally just said that a couple sentences ago. "when we are legitimate adults." i graduated college in 2006 and i have been waiting since then. i might have been slightly more realistic than some of my friends and peers upon my college graduation but i think you can only call it realistic because i abandoned my major when i came to the quick realization that if i went to grad school, i was going to have to inflict pain on something. i accepted that i was going to graduate college and stumble around until i found something i was good at, liked doing and paid me money. i know that i am very lucky. i managed to do that and not only that, but i did it and got to stay in the mitten. i have friends all over the country now, in various kinds of grad school or working, sometimes in the field they choose in college, because they couldn't get work here. yes, it's a bummer. and even though i have a job that i enjoy and feel as though i have found a niche with something i'm good at, i am still wondering when am i going to become a real adult? when is it that i'm going to make that transition, feel financially stable (because right now it still stresses me out to pay my car payment every month on top of my other bills. i make it just fine but i feel like real adults don't get annoyed with such a payment) and start considering that it is time to grow up and settle down? perhaps i've got the wrong impression of what a "real adult" is. maybe as some people fantasize about what love is, i fantasize about what being a "real adult" is. let's call that an epiphany for now.
i've read before that a person changes their career on average 5-8 times in their lifetime. that's a crap load of times. i wonder if you can count being a student in as a career change. especially for these folks who have gone back to school, hoping that this will amp up their resume and suddenly jobs will appear and their plans will be back on. i anticipate in a couple years there will be articles written about how people are way over educated for jobs that are available and are struggling to pay back massive debt created by becoming further educated. wait, that already happened? ok, well then more articles that talk about that.
anyway, i felt like i should say something about that. it's been on my mind for a while so whether it made sense or not, it's now out of my head and i feel quite satisfied with that. it's time for me to head home from work which hopefully won't take two hours. it's only 40 miles but something has happened with the rain and kids going back to school, i think everyone has lost their damn minds and are taking it out on their driving abilities. another rant for another time.
from the girl who is going to start hiding money in walls.
until next time...
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