Today I wanted to be picked up
carried - if just for a while,
rocked and soothed.
But, to no amount of
crying and raging
could any giant arms find me.
We are the generation of __
(Adults) that live in future tenses:
we will never (to be)
In our youth we are reminded
two decades done, two more to come?
In our middles - a discontent
and emptying of empty
a disconnect:
once whose cheeks were ruddy, round and full.
Now are: sallow, sallowing shallower still.
In our age we are reminded of the loss of our in-ability
our infancy, such tender caresses,
and kisses,
and the endless comfort
in knowing that with just one cry:
racing racing! Mother
will come to hold and to have.
How does one ever fit in his or her age with
Fervor, with
passionate strikes and strokes
with confidence
confident that if by chance
time were to stop
we would be exactly
where we are supposed to be.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Quarter Life
I am not so sure this is a great first post, but it is what it is:
I am approaching 25 years of age in a couple of months, and it seems as if this age has become synonymous with the dreaded "quarter life crisis". It is not just me, asked any one who knows the advent of the following items:
• Nintendo
• the internet
• interracial sitcoms
• mix tapes
• Super Nintendo
• Sega Genesis
• Nintendo 64
• STILL remembers the Wizard of Oz
• The Lion King
• snap bracelets
• etc.
And you will find a bunch of Twenty-somethings who are feeling:
• apathetic
• disingenuous
• disillusioned
• overwhelmed
• anxious
• undersexed
• overworked
• non-contributory to society
• etc.
much to the point that it has become such a blasé catch phrase: "Quarter life crisis".
As a result, my generation, like all generations who are feeling a bit disaffected and disconnected from reality, have been resorting to drugs, distractions, crazy life changes, exotic diets, mass consumption, insomnia, self-medication, over prescriptions of anti-depressants, etc. as a way to get away... but we all get "it" in the end.
We are all the product of the hippie parents gone corporate, plus our older "Generation X" siblings, plus the new inundation of information from the digital age/internet/cell phones/technological prosthetics, that has made it impossible for us to RELAX. Look at yourself right now, you are reading a blog, a modern invention of this greater concept of social networking. Back not too long ago, people published writings and it was made public after some big to-do. Nowadays, with a simple click of a few buttons, one can publish their entire hearts worth to millions of other people; it is amazing and connects us in ways we never thought possible. But now we are finding it impossible to unplug.
Even further, my generation has been taught time and time again to "go to college" and we took it to even greater heights, continuing to stay in school. Some call it a thirst for knowledge, and in part it is. But a bigger proportion of us, if we were being honest, stay in school because we don't know what to do. There are too many options, and each one carry great rewards and giant consequences. It seems as if to make a decision to progress with our lives, we haves to cut off a number of other seemingly interesting and rewarding options. We are taught to dedicate ourselves to what ever we decide to do, and are chastised when we dabble in a multitude of fields. We are taught to make up our minds, when we are never allowed to venture far from our comfort levels. We are told: "you can do anything if you put your mind to it".
But, we know that is not always true. Society at large is based on some screwed up merit system that rewards rare positions in careers to those who are the "best" as defined by rubrics, and metrics, and numbers, etc. I am sure this was done out of convenience: it is waaay to difficult to spend time getting to know every applicant deeply when hiring for a job, but as a result our generation has become really good at "faking it until we make it". So we are left with a bunch of green kids, running around trying to make a living, stuck with what little we crammed into our heads with our Bachelors degrees thinking: "Yeah, I am qualified for this job." and finding out the hard way that college taught us really little other than how to deal with hangovers.
That’s IF we decide on one job path. For the majority of us, we have giant aspirations that are whole lives, are presented as totally achievable for us. We are taught we are special, unique, and very talented by doting parents who want nothing than for us to succeed in life. Failure is never presented as an option. As a result, we are the generation afraid to fall.
My whole life is not "sink or swim", its "swim, keep swimming". What would it be like to fail?
I am approaching 25 years of age in a couple of months, and it seems as if this age has become synonymous with the dreaded "quarter life crisis". It is not just me, asked any one who knows the advent of the following items:
• Nintendo
• the internet
• interracial sitcoms
• mix tapes
• Super Nintendo
• Sega Genesis
• Nintendo 64
• STILL remembers the Wizard of Oz
• The Lion King
• snap bracelets
• etc.
And you will find a bunch of Twenty-somethings who are feeling:
• apathetic
• disingenuous
• disillusioned
• overwhelmed
• anxious
• undersexed
• overworked
• non-contributory to society
• etc.
much to the point that it has become such a blasé catch phrase: "Quarter life crisis".
As a result, my generation, like all generations who are feeling a bit disaffected and disconnected from reality, have been resorting to drugs, distractions, crazy life changes, exotic diets, mass consumption, insomnia, self-medication, over prescriptions of anti-depressants, etc. as a way to get away... but we all get "it" in the end.
We are all the product of the hippie parents gone corporate, plus our older "Generation X" siblings, plus the new inundation of information from the digital age/internet/cell phones/technological prosthetics, that has made it impossible for us to RELAX. Look at yourself right now, you are reading a blog, a modern invention of this greater concept of social networking. Back not too long ago, people published writings and it was made public after some big to-do. Nowadays, with a simple click of a few buttons, one can publish their entire hearts worth to millions of other people; it is amazing and connects us in ways we never thought possible. But now we are finding it impossible to unplug.
Even further, my generation has been taught time and time again to "go to college" and we took it to even greater heights, continuing to stay in school. Some call it a thirst for knowledge, and in part it is. But a bigger proportion of us, if we were being honest, stay in school because we don't know what to do. There are too many options, and each one carry great rewards and giant consequences. It seems as if to make a decision to progress with our lives, we haves to cut off a number of other seemingly interesting and rewarding options. We are taught to dedicate ourselves to what ever we decide to do, and are chastised when we dabble in a multitude of fields. We are taught to make up our minds, when we are never allowed to venture far from our comfort levels. We are told: "you can do anything if you put your mind to it".
But, we know that is not always true. Society at large is based on some screwed up merit system that rewards rare positions in careers to those who are the "best" as defined by rubrics, and metrics, and numbers, etc. I am sure this was done out of convenience: it is waaay to difficult to spend time getting to know every applicant deeply when hiring for a job, but as a result our generation has become really good at "faking it until we make it". So we are left with a bunch of green kids, running around trying to make a living, stuck with what little we crammed into our heads with our Bachelors degrees thinking: "Yeah, I am qualified for this job." and finding out the hard way that college taught us really little other than how to deal with hangovers.
That’s IF we decide on one job path. For the majority of us, we have giant aspirations that are whole lives, are presented as totally achievable for us. We are taught we are special, unique, and very talented by doting parents who want nothing than for us to succeed in life. Failure is never presented as an option. As a result, we are the generation afraid to fall.
My whole life is not "sink or swim", its "swim, keep swimming". What would it be like to fail?
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