It only makes sense that birthdays bring about a time of reflection. In the same way January 1st marks a new calendar year, a birthday marks a new year of you. To be honest, I thought I might spend my 25th birthday crying into a beer. Especially with all the introspective “where is this all going” thinking I’ve been doing lately; however, 25 is turning out to be amazing (ask me in two months). A clean slate, a fresh start.
I’ve wanted to write about my thoughts on Gen-Y for quite some time, and a more in-depth post will come later, but I think what has to be considered when discussing generations are that there are always exceptions to the rule, age is a universal demographic and personality plays a big part as well. I say this because I think some of the aspects that shape my generation, my age, my personality and my own exceptions have been a contributing factor to this mini crisis I’ve been having. Yet the more I voice some of my thoughts to my peers and those older than me, the more I find I’m much less alone than I thought I was.
Some of the things I have read about other people’s thoughts on Gen-Y I agree with, and what I’m getting at if you’ll bear with me is that I expect to be happy in my job. From what I read about what other people have decided about my generation, other Gen-Yers expect to be happy in their jobs too. I also think that careers are much less like a ladder and much more like stepping stones and some stones are just a little more conducive to stepping than others. I’ve also decided that work is a great (read unhealthy) scapegoat for other problems in life, and when we heap all of our dissatisfaction from other areas of our life on our job we really aren’t doing anyone any good and we are skewing our preceptation about what really is the problem.
Andrew Swenson reminded me that I recently commented on his blog “[...] when we try to force ourselves to be the picture professional that the generation before us is/was, we find ourselves (generally speaking) unmotivated, unfulfilled and discontent. I think they would tell us ‘work is work’ and my response is ‘well, I’d like to enjoy it most of the time.’”
So when moving forward in my career, in my friendships, in this post ¼ of a century life, I’d like to enjoy it most of the time. Call me entitled.
Happy Birthday Abby!
Great post! For what it’s worth, there are some of us who are older than you that are learning from your young, yet very soundly reasoned perspective. Your observations on work and “the real problem” have left me feeling the need for a little introspection.
-M.