Monday, July 27, 2009

New College Graduates Reject Jobs?!!

Sigh. Someone should really get it into these young ones that your 20s will always suck, that you'll have no money, make lousy choices, and that's why at the time drinking lots and hookups make sense. And pry them away from their parents. I cannot get it through my head how much of a generational shift there was in the 10 years or so after I was born.

Let me tell you (adjusts cardigan, pushes glasses up her nose) when I graduated in 1997, I lived in a grotty apartment on Madison that cost $365 a month. I made $10 an hour at the law firm, and my parents told me that if I didn't have a job with health insurance I was coming home (where I shortly would not have had health insurance either, but I digress). It was a crappy time, but it made me a better person. For one thing, I taught myself how to make samosas out of The Moosewood Cookbook. Because I couldn't afford anything but potatoes bought on sale! And I was ashamed that I couldn't fend for myself better, that I had no skills and no clue, and worked hard to turn myself into an adult.

Save the world, slap some sense into a Millennial!

2 comments:

modest-goddess said...

How is this possible, when I graduated from college in 2003 most of my peers would have been grateful to have 1 job offer ... and I had an engineering degree.

Kerry said...

Man, when it's bad for engineers it's bad for everyone.

For a couple of months after I graduated I had a battle going with The Don because he wanted me to come home. He told me I didn't even have to get a job, I could just take time off and enjoy myself. It got so bad that I would have to hang up on him when he brought that up. And I could, because I had a job and lived 500 miles away!