Jaded

As I sit at Borders incessantly checking my e-mail and waiting for 1:30 to roll around for my first of three apartment showings today, my mind is wandering back to an article I read a few weeks back. I was sitting in a bridal suite with some of my girlfriends the night before a Peterson became a Louderback and there was a Cosmo magazine discarded on a table. Britney Spears was on the cover along with some steamy, misleading headlines, I'm sure. One headline in particular caught my attention. It read, "How to not hate your first job". Immediately, I was drawn in as my search for a job is never far from the front of my mind.

Among the loads of fluff that Cosmo generally publishes, it was a rare gem of wisdom. Basically, it discussed how our generation of Millenials is jaded by education and the job market. We go through college with people telling us that just having a college degree will make us marketable and we will have no trouble finding a job. This tidbit, however, is left over from years ago when few people went to college. Today, higher education is the norm, not the exception thereby not really making college-educated folk stand out at all.

The other enlightening piece of info the article offered was the metaphorical pedestal many of our loved ones put us on. Parents, family members, teachers, etc. from birth tell kids that they can be whatever they want to be as long as they put their mind to it. Now, I love my parents for being supportive of all of my life choices and for encouraging me to go for anything and everything, but they are partly to blame for my dreamer mentality. Even now as I become increasingly bitter that my life is not at all where I want it to be upon turning 24, I still can't help but have those huge dreams. Now, don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with having big ambitions, but we stick to those so closely that we feel we shouldn't put up with anything less. In reality, to get to the majors, you first have to play in the minors. This means entry-level jobs that may or may not be related to your dream job. We need to chuck that sense of entitlement and play the game with a smile on our face in order to move up to where we want to be. Pay our dues, so to speak.

So with that, I am waiting to hear back about two jobs that are not directly related to my desired field but will be good experience nonetheless. And if those don't pan out, hopefully one of these three apartments will be inhabitable for the next year.