Diane,
oh the woes of the Millennialist. We are by far the most narcissistic breed to live on this planet: even the act of writing this blog implies that I believe that what I write is worth being publicized. I am, after all, presenting a version of myself, a performance of a sorts, and to do that I have to tell myself "you are cool and ppl love you yes they think your dry wit is hiLARious." (but rly writers are just a muddle of self-loathing and narcissism).
I think you really articulated your thoughts well - that is, our obsession with learning these thoughts and ideas and working to reconcile them in our liberal-artsy-Theory-of-Knowledge-esque way, and not knowing how all this will ultimately be useful in our near future / job prospects. I can't tell if we're just too narcissistic to acknowledge that we are NOT the only exception and stick our noses to the air, believing we can get by on our sparkling personalities. Not that we genuinely believe our personalities alone can pay the rent but the Millennialists LOVE to believe we can get famous just posting a witty tweet or quirky Instagram selfies. Sofia Coppola alludes to this too, the fact that the side effects of reality tv and social media in this new century give people the impression that fame is achieved overnight - you literally sleep and suddenly you're famous.
No, I don't think we're so ignorant to believe in this overnight sensation syndrome (yea i just named it watch it hit the dsm v), your very post proved that, but we do want to change the world. In fact, Psychology Today wrote a surprisingly insightful article about "Generation Me." What starts as a "the kids are totally not alright" and a recitation of fact after fact about our empathylessness ends with the conclusion that we genuinely want to change the world and wear down societal expectations. We're just readjusting to where the wind takes us, and that's a world where narcissism is needed to even dent the competitive job market and conquer the models of perfection society churns.
I think it's may even be more crucial to the job industry we're looking at (for us I mean anything that excludes anything STEM) because we're not casually curing cancer or solving Fermat's Last Theorem. For me, (srry imma stop speaking in the royal we haha) I can become frustrated when I realize I honestly don't have the mind capabilities to become a doctor or an engineer, even though I know I don't belong in any of those pursuits - and yet, when I was two hours over the Pacific and a woman needed medical attention, I felt powerless (as I'm sure did the other hundred people on the plane who weren't doctors). Doctors, engineers are so IMMEDIATELY impact society. They literally save people.
The self-loathing part of me doesn't really believe I can change the world, whereas doctors will -- and this part of me is really scared I won't get the self-fulfillment I'm looking for. But my optimistic side significantly outweighs this fear. And I know I can change the world just by being alive.
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I couldn't resist responding to your eloquent post, but just so you know, I call the Zimmerman case so don't steal my topic. Till Tuesday.
xoxo,
Elina
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