"I Can't Do One Thing, I'm Just Too Good."

In these times, some of us find ourselves waiting for everything to fall into place while we try our damnedest to make them.  We went to college and pursued our interests in the hope of making a living at them only to be released into the worst job market of our lifetime. This job market, as the years pass, seems to get more crowded with the new batch of graduates every semester.  Some drop their heads and hope for something to happen, others of us keep our heads high and smile in the face of the high school dropouts who started careers and are now living much more comfortably than we are.  

Is it a surprise our generation drinks cheap beer and isn't willing to drop 40-bones to watch one band play a few football fields away?  We were taught the value of the dollar and we learned that we aren't getting where we planned.  That's why we sip our PBR and prefer our entertainment to be on a large scale with general admission.  It's why we shop at thrift stores and it’s why we destroyed the music industry which is being reinvented on our terms.  

Every generation has been affected by the economic state it was brought up in, and by the economic state it comes to fruition in.  Notice the age of most of the people on Hoarders; they're older people who grew up during or in the aftermath of the Great Depression.  They didn't have anything growing up, so they keep everything they get.  This was also a time when many successful businesses and franchises were started.  People from the 80s, the decade of excess, worked their way to the top and got every ridiculous thing they could and threw it away as soon as they found something new.  The 90s had the internet's rapid growth with its share of both successes and failures.  Now, we're in the state we're in, the Great Recession as they call it, where it seems no one has money except the people who already had it.  

We were brought up by a generation of hardworking people who took pride in their work.  They instilled this in us, and told us repeatedly the importance of education and urged us to follow our passion to find our careers.  We followed our passions right into this recession. 

We still follow our passions, but we do it on our own time.

The positives show through the negatives if you look for the light.  We're learning lessons; lessons that have been learned before and are sure to be learned again.  We keep our heads high and keep trying for success, because failure only comes to fruition when we stop trying. 

We're finding our way.  We make mistakes, just like those before us did.  We're educated, but we don't have jobs to use our education on, so we use it on our hobbies and in our free time.  This is why it seems everyone is drawn to the arts.  We can't find the money to use our joy on materials, like the generation before; so we use our joys on expression, as the philosophers told us to.

Our generation seems to be learning how to get cheap thrills with cheap beers and entertainment, and making the most of what we have.  The newspaper, music and television industries have struggled greatly and have been forced to reinvent themselves (which they're still in the process of), because we realized we can get all of that content on the internet and don't need to waste time, energy and money on going around to find it all.  

Don't question it, we'll figure it out.  We're enjoying the journey, like you told us to.