And we’re back! We were off and busy for the holidays, but after a couple weeks of inactivity, we’re back in action. Thank you for your support up until now!
One important conflict that many post-grads face is the idea of settling. This concept can be applicable to more than one stream of thought, but the dilemma exists primarily in two categories: one’s future spouse and one’s personal career.
Our generation, which has been called “Generation Y”, is epitomized by a culture that disdains the idea of settling. To settle is almost worse than death itself. To many of us, settling implies that we failed. That we didn’t achieve the goal that we originally set forth to achieve. It’s hard to refute this point: to a certain extent, when we settle, the very idea of settling does suggest that we didn’t achieve everything we had originally set off to achieve.
Furthermore, the truth is most of us don’t really feel the urgency to settle. And with good reason! Nowadays, if worst comes to worst, we can just live at home while we scour the job market for our “dream” career. Marriage? Same difference. The aforementioned “live at home until thirty syndrome” has genuinely swept across the United States. Statistically speaking, roughly 60% (according to Monster.com) of college students move back home after graduating.
This is a staggering statistic, but it speaks volumes as to why our generation has such an aversion to settling. We just don’t care. We’re perfectly content to live off the wealth of our parents, to enjoy the life of being single, and to navigate the real world with little more than our ambition and desire to be the best that we can be.
And to be honest, the more I think about it, the more I realize why should we settle? I mean, truth be told, I do believe that we should definitely temper our ideals if they are far too unrealistic. Being too idealistic about what we want can also be a path to inevitable failure. I’m not going to make it to the NBA at this point in my life, let’s be real. But at the same time, having been given a certain freedom to test the waters of both our romantic and career lives, let’s be young and make some mistakes! I am a firm believer in taking risks in life. Life was meant to be enjoyed; let’s enjoy it!
While we balance the real world with the world of our ideals, let’s be careful to not live in the clouds, but at the same time, continue to pursue excellence and the best that we can possibly achieve. If you have your eyes set on a particular job, pursue it passionately. Even if in the end you have to change your goals to accommodate reality, don’t start off that way. Who knows? What if you end up getting that perfect job? Or that perfect wife/husband? Or that perfect…?
Of course, this principle is only really applicable until we reach the apocalyptic ages of thirty. Things tend to quickly unravel at that point, and our ideals come crashing down from their pedestals, and join the ranks of the real world. Eharmony.com and Match.com becomes a real option. You’ll take basically any job that you can get.
But hey. I’m not thirty quite yet. And if you’ve just graduated college, neither are you. Live a little. You only get to live this part of your life once.
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don’t settle. we all deserve the best.
and yay for being in the 40% of college grads who didn’t move back in with their parents