With one more quarter to go, commencement is only a hop, skip
and a few more all-nighters away for those of us who will be
graduating in the spring. Senioritis is once again our tireless
companion.
But it’s different this time. In high school, college was
the light at the end of the tunnel. Now the future is less
clear.
For those of us who don’t have jobs or internships
waiting, we can only deflect The Question (What are you doing after
you graduate?) so many times before the commencement tune
“Pomp and Circumstance” begins to sound like an
executioner’s song. An ambiguous future impatiently solicits
definition, but due to the lowering value of a college diploma, we
can hardly be shamed for not jumping into jobs straight away.
They’ve got names for our stalled condition. A USA Today
article on the subject says sociologists call it a prolonged
adolescence. According to The Fayetteville Observer, some have
created a new term that dubs us “adultlescents.” One
article in The Sacramento Bee has renamed us Generation Yo-Yo,
playing on the fact that after college, many of us will return home
to live with our parents again.
Admittedly, there’s truth to what they say. USA Today
cited a study by Twentysomething Inc., a market research group that
studies youth trends, which found that in 2004, 65 percent of
college graduates expected to live at home again after earning
their degrees.
And if adulthood is being measured by traditional milestones,
such as marriage and financial independence, then our generation
could be given yet another name ““ The Slackers.
In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men had finished
school, left home, gotten married, had a child, and attained
financial independence by age 30. The study cited in the USA Today
article found that in 2000, only 46 percent of women and 31 percent
of men had reached those same markers.
And I have to say, even though it resonates with slacker-ism:
It’s not our fault. We have derailed from the beaten path,
but it’s much harder these days to squeeze financial
independence out of a bachelor’s degree.
College students today graduate with a diploma that is less
valuable in the face of a more competitive world.
If reaching the traditional markers of adulthood is taking
longer, it’s because a bachelor’s degree isn’t
enough anymore ““ you’ve got to get through more years
of expensive graduate education before you can really commence,
while meanwhile accruing a weighty debt on your shoulders. Heavier
financial obstacles further obscure the road to independence.
Fourth-year sociology student Jose Inigo gets frustrated when
his parents expect him to jump right into a steady career
immediately after graduation. He said he often explains to them
that “college opens doors but it doesn’t give you
instant access to a good job.”
When I asked Inigo about his post-graduation plans, he readily
admitted that he had no idea.
Like many of his peers, Inigo isn’t prolonging his
dependence on his parents out of laziness; he just doesn’t
want to carelessly rush into a career in which he isn’t
interested.
“I’m being super choosy right now mostly because I
want that dream job where I’m doing something I really
like,” he said.
Inigo isn’t being childish because he knows that pursuing
his passions requires a monetary sacrifice, a sacrifice he’s
carefully thought about and chosen to make.
Like other students, Inigo is currently sifting through several
internships, seemingly wasting his time in economically poor
pursuits, but actually exploring his interests while getting his
foot in the door.
This plan is prudent, but financially it will be a strain.
Unfortunately, most internships are unpaid ““ essential for
getting started somewhere but cruelly unpaid.
Like the rest of us, Inigo is looking for a career he’ll
love. That’s the main distinction between our generation and
past generations.
University of Western Ontario sociologist James Côté,
who studies the transition into adulthood, said in a USA Today
article, “The traditional adulthood of duty and
self-sacrifice is becoming more and more a thing of the
past.”
Traditional adulthood is being left behind in favor of pursuing
interests, and there’s nothing wrong with that ““ even
if it means we have to be “adultlescents.”
It’s not that we fear working hard. We fear working hard
for a job that isn’t worthwhile. Let’s say your life
really does flash before your eyes right before you die.
Wouldn’t it be tragic if the flashback of your life is as
bland as C-SPAN?
Last week when my mother asked me The Question, I whimsically
mused that I planned to move to Italy to sell oranges on the
street. Before I could say “I’m joking,” she
frantically replied, “What oranges? Where will you get these
oranges? Where?” After a pause, she asked me to please come
back to the real world.
Some of us are moving along at a slower pace. But that
doesn’t mean we aren’t becoming responsible adults.
There are economic constraints that we have to be mindful of, but
we shouldn’t have to give up our interests just to follow a
timetable.
When the late physicist Frank Oppenheimer was asked to please
come back to the real world, he said, “We don’t live in
the real world. We live in a world we made up.”
Here’s hoping that though off-schedule, the world we make
up will be inspiring and always worthwhile, even if it entails
oranges.
If you are a wholesale supplier of oranges, e-mail Tao at
atao@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.