Today's Generation & Finances
Screw the movie-rambling post; this is far more important:
Young & In Debt
I just stumbled upon this article, though it's been around for a while. And I cannot even BEGIN to express how justified I feel for reading this.
Once upon a time, I had just finished my freshman year in college and was home for the summer and working through a temp agency to make money. I was getting around 8 bucks an hour to file stuff for a human resources department for a local company, and I got to interact a lot with the HR staff. They were all very nice, friendly people. And I found out that many of them didn't have college educations, yet, they were making a lot of money. Summers and Christmases passed with me doing temp work, and each job taught me the same thing, only a little harder. I learned real fast that just because I was getting a college education didn't mean I was better or worth more than anyone else in the room. It's something that, off and on through college and sometime after, that I would try to make others understand. We aren't entitled to anything. Society doesn't owe us jack. Instead, thanks to the generation we grew up in and heavy marketing, we owe society because as a whole, we're quite the materialistic bastards.
So this article is several years too late, IMO. I've been saying it for a while. Hell, Fight Club said it too. But that doesn't mean I'm not thankful for it. Finally, it's publicly acknowledged all the problems that's plaguing me and my generation, and it's not because we're lazy, folks.
The sense of betrayal is real, no doubt. And the feeling that we're drowning is even more real. The fact that sacrifice is a very real issue should be no surprise to anyone. For some people, the sacrifice is more than others.
I can't complain; not now. My own debt and struggle is no where near as bad as some of the people discussed in the article. A year ago, though, hell, even two years ago, I would've been angry.
It's not the debt that gets to me. I see the light at the end of my tunnel (college loans excluded, but that's a different mindset right now), and I'm chugging along. I've also made decisions about life: do I pursue a forty-plus hour workweek with evenings and weekends in order to afford what I want/need? I could, but I'd sacrifice my sanity and my art. I've chosen not to do so. This means doing crap jobs that anyone with any sense could do. And they didn't have to go to college. But it's money, and that's the important part.
Greg and I have often talked about how we would handle having kids and what to do about college. To be honest, as much as I'm a proponent for higher education, I wouldn't push it. These days, it's not practical to go into college unless you have a clear goal in mind for what you want to pursue. And then, you better be aware of the market. It's not a good time for artists of any kind, but those of us doing it have to want and need to do it. That's one of the reasons I resent my music major, because once I realized I wouldn't pursue it professionally (that really, this was all recreational shit), I'd invested too much to quit.
The sad truth is, we live in a society that is in direct conflict with what it tells us. Sure, we should pursue our dreams, but don't we also want to have a nice, shiny iPod? A plasma, flat-screen tv? New car? Pretty brand name labeled clothes? The latter is given to us far earlier than the sense of holding out for dreams, and for many of us, holding out for dreams isn't conducive to materialism. Fight Club said it best: "We work jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need."
I'm thankful that I, like many people I've graduated with, have come to terms with this new reality. That we're all aware of what it means to be an adult, and we're aware that we have to make choices--important ones at that. We have to make certain sacrifices. And we have to learn to live with that. And we have to learn to plan ahead in all regards.
I'm only just now reaching a point where I can start to "plan ahead" in terms of finances. How that'll work out is beyond me. I'm still not the smartest spender in the world, but I'm far from the worst. It doesn't change the fact that I tend to add more debt just when I'm nearly done with one aspect of it, and I'm still trying to juggle that. Working full-time helps, though. And right now, that's the key.
Young & In Debt
I just stumbled upon this article, though it's been around for a while. And I cannot even BEGIN to express how justified I feel for reading this.
Once upon a time, I had just finished my freshman year in college and was home for the summer and working through a temp agency to make money. I was getting around 8 bucks an hour to file stuff for a human resources department for a local company, and I got to interact a lot with the HR staff. They were all very nice, friendly people. And I found out that many of them didn't have college educations, yet, they were making a lot of money. Summers and Christmases passed with me doing temp work, and each job taught me the same thing, only a little harder. I learned real fast that just because I was getting a college education didn't mean I was better or worth more than anyone else in the room. It's something that, off and on through college and sometime after, that I would try to make others understand. We aren't entitled to anything. Society doesn't owe us jack. Instead, thanks to the generation we grew up in and heavy marketing, we owe society because as a whole, we're quite the materialistic bastards.
So this article is several years too late, IMO. I've been saying it for a while. Hell, Fight Club said it too. But that doesn't mean I'm not thankful for it. Finally, it's publicly acknowledged all the problems that's plaguing me and my generation, and it's not because we're lazy, folks.
The sense of betrayal is real, no doubt. And the feeling that we're drowning is even more real. The fact that sacrifice is a very real issue should be no surprise to anyone. For some people, the sacrifice is more than others.
I can't complain; not now. My own debt and struggle is no where near as bad as some of the people discussed in the article. A year ago, though, hell, even two years ago, I would've been angry.
It's not the debt that gets to me. I see the light at the end of my tunnel (college loans excluded, but that's a different mindset right now), and I'm chugging along. I've also made decisions about life: do I pursue a forty-plus hour workweek with evenings and weekends in order to afford what I want/need? I could, but I'd sacrifice my sanity and my art. I've chosen not to do so. This means doing crap jobs that anyone with any sense could do. And they didn't have to go to college. But it's money, and that's the important part.
Greg and I have often talked about how we would handle having kids and what to do about college. To be honest, as much as I'm a proponent for higher education, I wouldn't push it. These days, it's not practical to go into college unless you have a clear goal in mind for what you want to pursue. And then, you better be aware of the market. It's not a good time for artists of any kind, but those of us doing it have to want and need to do it. That's one of the reasons I resent my music major, because once I realized I wouldn't pursue it professionally (that really, this was all recreational shit), I'd invested too much to quit.
The sad truth is, we live in a society that is in direct conflict with what it tells us. Sure, we should pursue our dreams, but don't we also want to have a nice, shiny iPod? A plasma, flat-screen tv? New car? Pretty brand name labeled clothes? The latter is given to us far earlier than the sense of holding out for dreams, and for many of us, holding out for dreams isn't conducive to materialism. Fight Club said it best: "We work jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need."
I'm thankful that I, like many people I've graduated with, have come to terms with this new reality. That we're all aware of what it means to be an adult, and we're aware that we have to make choices--important ones at that. We have to make certain sacrifices. And we have to learn to live with that. And we have to learn to plan ahead in all regards.
I'm only just now reaching a point where I can start to "plan ahead" in terms of finances. How that'll work out is beyond me. I'm still not the smartest spender in the world, but I'm far from the worst. It doesn't change the fact that I tend to add more debt just when I'm nearly done with one aspect of it, and I'm still trying to juggle that. Working full-time helps, though. And right now, that's the key.