Being a Boomlette

Popular culture has a rough time coming up with a cohesive name for the current young adult generation. Gen Y and Millinikids never really stuck, so I'm hoping "Boomlette" aka Baby Boomer spawn will catch on. I can't really take credit for this term: my dad came up with it.

We were the first generation to fully take advantage of the internet and for most of us, it's become the primary way of communicating. We pioneered email, IMing, blogs and facebook.

Our movies, music, and television reach us by Netflix, iPods, and DVRs (and for many of us, just the internet.)

Our hovercraft parents escorted us to sports practices, music lessons and host of other activities to get us into 4 year colleges and the majority of us receive our diplomas right in the heat of the worst. recession. ever. Which means many of us overachievers can't find jobs (myself included).

The Baby Boomers were all about idealism and peace and love, all while fighting the system. Generation X was about how greed is a good thing and that a whole lotta cutthroat work ethic would get you the summer house, fancy car and the latest iphone, all by the time you were 30.

So where are we now? What about the Boomlettes (Baby Boomer offspring)? We were raised with the work ethic of Xers and hovercraft Boomer parents who wanted us to thrive and suddenly our economy went, pun intended, boom and I don't know about the rest of you, but now I have NO IDEA what we're supposed to accomplish, since many of us can barely break through the front door.

Now I've been a person who's just simply wanted to be a pursuer of the arts. Sing some opera, write a memoir, play piano, learn a language or two, cook the perfect gourmet dinner. I would have made a swell Victorian noble, or bohemian, depending on which side of the economic pendulum I landed on. I have always lived under the mantra that one should always be learning. I am pretty sure that if had I the time and one of JK Rowling's little time-traveler hourglass necklaces, I would have 5 bachelor's degrees (but the performing arts one is the one I wanted the mostess, so I went with that.) I think that's why my time studying abroad in Florence was so happy. An entire school devoted to teaching those language, music, cooking and art! Oh it was like a haven for me! With an unlimited bank account, I could have lived there FOREVER.


It should be noted that I studied in Florence in Fall of 2008. I was living in a dreamland of opera and art history, while the US was going through the worst recession in recent history. When I left, gas was 2.79 in central NC and the election was starting to pick up on all cylinders. When I returned, we had a new president and gas was 1.45 and everyone's life seemed to be shattered in someway. And I'm starting to think that, despite current economic circumstances, I should still live my life by pursuing knowledge and the arts.


But we all have to find a way to eat and pay bills. I think we're supposed to combine the two philosophies of Boomers and Xers. Do what we love, not what we're "supposed" to do to be "successful" and find a way to live off it. That's all I really want.



Oh and in case you're wondering...If I had five majors...they would be the following:


Theatre (check)


Vocal Performance


Media Communications


Italian Language

Psychology


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