Those of us in our twenties right now are constantly being told by society that us “millennials” are different from the rest. I don’t quite understand why we are told this. Our grandparents lived much different lives than our parents. So, isn’t it just the way things progress that we would be different than our parents? Most of our generation went to college. Almost everyone I know has a college degree or is currently pursuing one. I don’t know many people my mother’s age that have a college degree. In fact, my father never got one. I think we were told a story of how life was going to work out based on our parent’s experience. Go to high school, get good grades (to get into college), acquire a degree, get a job and climb the ladder. Well, for people twenty-something right now, this is not the case. I, personally, went to college, got my degree, joined the workforce, and (for the second time in the past 12 months) was laid off. So, like anyone going through their mid-life crisis, I am trying to figure out what I want out of life. I need to find my place, what I am meant to do, who I am meant to help. My degree is in Sociology; I would love to become a social worker/case manager/program leader. Really, anything helping people with abuse in their past, drug problems, or homelessness. But at the same time, I want to sell my very few possessions and buy a plane ticket out of the country and figure my life out that way. I don’t know how I would pay for anything once I got there. There isn’t much value in the things I own, but I feel there are enough blogs, vlogs, and Google searches to give me the answers.

I tell this to my family a few weeks after I have been laid off. I tell them my frustrations with this competitive workforce. I explain: I went to college to get a job that required a college degree. Now, I don’t have enough experience for that job because I was too busy going to college to work and didn’t get the experience needed for the job. Now, I need the job to pay off the debt I have from going to college to get the job that requires the degree and the experience. It feels like a vicious cycle that many twenty-something year olds are experiencing right now. I tell my family that I would like to travel. I explain that I know I would be in no better place (in regards to experience for a job) later if I travel now, but wouldn’t it be worth it?? I have had a job to pay the bills. I know what that is like. I don’t know what it is like to live somewhere else. I don’t know what it is like to struggle to communicate because I don’t speak the language. I don’t know what it’s like to experience a new place every few months. And isn’t that experience so much more valuable than typical work experience? I am not saying that tomorrow you will see all my belongings on Craigslist, but I hope that my thirties will help me grow a pair and travel the world.