Funny to read this post, as just this morning my boyfriend and I were having one of those early morning conversations about the future, where profundity and honesty sort of mist up from the ground in the haze of drowsy half-wakefulness.
He, a 24 year-old Japanese major three months from graduation, confessed to me his fearfulness about his future. He is afraid. He's never had a career. He knows what he would like to do, but no one around him has given him any direction on how to go about it. Why is he a Japanese major? Because it is his passion. Would I, a 34 year-old, recommend to him that course? No, I would've have tried to steer him to an area with more guaranteed income. I work. I know what it's like out there. I've re-jiggered my education from early childhood ed to nursing to, finally, accounting. Because I want to grind out a decent living that provides for my family.
No one, not parents or teachers or counselors, ever once said to him, "Hey, maybe you should do X for a living if you want a sound career." Because, "It's you're dream!" damnit. And the dream matters.
Yeah, thanks Baby Boomers. Meanwhile, in reality . . .
And, here he is. Aimless and terrified. He has no idea, because no adult anywhere thought to give him one. Oh, I have attempted it. I've made my remarks and steered him in the right areas for jobs and post-graduate assignments. But why the fuck am I the only one looking at him going, "You need to do this, this, and this, to get your post-degree life sorted." Why isn't his university or parents or anyone else at all preparing him for life?
I'll never get down on Millennials. Their parents fucked them. But hard.