Generational Tones

The Baby Boomers are known for some of the slang to come out of their youth, such as "groovy," "far out," and "dig it."

Our generation will be known for "squee."

And maybe "omg."

The sad truth is, our children will think we are even more hopelessly lame than *we* think we are.

To Dream the Nonexistent Dream

When we are small, we're told that we can be anything we dream of being -- doctor, poet, truck driver, explorer, and my wildly lofty childhood dream of choice, astronaut*.

When we are little, nobody tells us that we can strive to any number of careers that simply do not exist yet; however, realistically, there are plenty of legitimate jobs that exist now that did not exist a mere 20 years ago. Given that the internet, in its presently glorious, socialist incarnation, did not exist back then, an entire sector came into being well after our parents could have stroked our heads and said "Suzie, when you grow up, you can be a progressive blogger covering feminist topics in national politics!"

Though my current career did indeed exist when I was a small child dreaming of space shuttles and Mars landers, I certainly did not dream of being an office toad when I hit 25. And now, here I am, squatting on that lily pad for 8 hours a day (minus bathroom breaks), shoulders hunched over a machine with more computing power in its word processing program than my old Apple IIGS could summon to play Zany Golf when I was six. And what of it? What about quarter-life dreams?

I've been trying to figure out if I want to go back to school, even though, honestly, the idea of going back to a world in which homework figures prominently gives me hives. Before taking any sort of leap of education or career, I thought I'd take the sane approach of finding other people whose jobs make me think "Okay, yes, I want to be him/her when I grow up."

After being limited in childhood by the boundaries of what existed at the time, are we still limited once we reach that pinnacle of career? When they said "the sky's the limit," did they mean "the concrete confines of modern technology and current vision are the limit?" Or is that something I'm constructing now in my absolute, abject frustration at not being able to find any career that I can point to and say: Yes, that is exactly what I would love to wake up and do every day for the next few years of my precious life.

I know that it is a wonderful, lucky thing that is unique to my randomly being born into the exact situation that I was, to have so many options. But it is also frustrating to realize that yes, I could be anything, but what it is that I absolutely, wholly want to be?

Paralysis by noncommitment. Still searching, and not getting anywhere faster than a slow, plodding hop.

*Granted, this dream lasted until I was twenty, which kinda pushes the statute of limitations on childhood ambitions.