Career Cruising Is Killing Me
Here’s my issue with America.
In America we are expected to find our “calling” and follow through with it. We are expected to know what we want to do when we are eighteen years old. In the high school I went to they expected us to know what field we wanted to be in by the tenth grade…. at fifteen or sixteen years old.
I am twenty-one and still have no idea what I want to do with my life. This is stressful because people in older generations see me as an indecisive millennial. They tell me that I have time and that it’s normal to have no idea where I am in life, but their eyes tell me something else.
When I look into the eyes of a baby boomer or their children I see the look of disgrace and disgust.
They don’t understand the pressure we are put under as the younger generation.
When they were our age most of them were led to their careers. They were manipulated by government into war, or pushed into the family business.
Today large companies have monopolized most businesses so there are very few thriving family businesses.
As millennials, we are pressured into going to college to “create a better future than they had”, but when most millennials finish school and get a degree there are not enough jobs open for them to make that better life.
So what do millennials do?
We work as waiters and waitresses in restaurants. We become bartenders. We live in apartment complexes and have as few things as possible in case we have to move one year after we have already moved. We sit at home and eat ramen even when we are not in school because the cost of living does not match the wages we are given. People who do manage to get that job in their career field still find themselves needing a second job because it barely provides enough to cover the cost of living.
Millennials are constantly told to save money. How can we save money if every time we turn around there is a new tax or a new bill thrown our way. Since when did the cost of living mean you had to give up your life to work so you could pay bills?
There are too many careers to choose from and most of them will not provide for us. So the next time you hear someone say they are in a limbo state with school or that they don’t know what they’re doing with school just understand that it’s not easy. FAFSA does not provide for people who actually need the help. Don’t judge them. Just understand.
