I just had to post one of the closing paragraphs from this article I saw on Salon today (via Fark). It sounds like this guy has figured out the secret of life at 25 (seriously).
For all their being dismissed as entitled, millennials have to
channel more and more of their resources toward succeeding in any field.
Jason
Ritzke, a 25-year-old operations manager in broadcast television, says
he and his wife sent out 400 job applications and received four
interviews. He managed to find a job. She’s still looking. He doesn’t
take many risks as a result. He says, “As difficulty scales, as it
becomes more and more difficult to elevate yourself, you find yourself
giving up things. You find yourself asking, ‘Can I ride this bike
without a helmet? What will happen to my wife if I lose my job? Can she
provide for herself? Can she get a job fast enough to do it?’ Every day I
have to lean on every single one of my faculties at work to haul myself
just a tiny bit higher. Then I come home and work to fight the forces
of entropy on my life, to fix things, to pay bills. I do everything by
the straight and narrow because the penalties for falling off the track
are so steep.”
Does he wish he was out partying? Maybe a little. Does he feel less cool because he’s not doing so?
“Do I feel lame?” asks Jason. “No. I feel like Hercules.”
Most of the piece is about how Millennials are so much more giving and attentive, etc. but this part really stands out.
I humbly submit that Mr. Ritzke has figured out the meaning of life - acting responsibly. He's probably going to make it to adulthood successfully in a few years.
