The second wave of Gen-X, the overlap Gen-Y, and the first wave of Millenials find themselves in the same ship of fools set adrift by Boomers & first-wave Gen-Xers for whom the “system” worked. This is not something that the older folks planned outright. If it was about planning outright, they should be lauded because most did try to plan.
But as often happens in the conspiring flow of historical chance & purpose, things did not work out at all as they had been doing.
This is what happens when generations believe that their way in the world is the way things will be for their children. The World War II generation created a time in which their children and first grand children benefitted without recognizing exactly how privileged their moment in the history was–right place, right time, etc.
Fast forward to February 28, 2010 and me driving Bessie the Uhaul van on what I called my “Trail of Tears 2010.” I don’t know what made me cry harder: the fact that I had an expensive graduate degree, but no gainful employment or prospects to show/pay for it; the fact that I had ended an almost six-year long relationship with the man I thought I would spend the rest of my life with; or the sight of the familiar peach shingles and burgundy beams on the front of my home.
I wasn’t alone. According to Pew Research Center, 29 percent of boomerang kids aged 25 to 34 had found themselves moving back in with mom and dad. This is far from a case of failure to launch — it’s the economy’s failure to launch us into the lives we grew up working toward and were promised.
CALL ME MAGGIE 