Those Days Are Over
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 | No Comments »Put your hot tea down and go read Hugh MacLeod’s blog post fat dumb happy.
Speaking about a friend’s relative who had to drop out of college, Hugh says…
But even though the situation clipped his wings considerably, he still ended up having a nice life in the end, with a home, a big yard, two cars, a steady paycheck, weekends fishing or hunting deer, and vacations in Hawaii every year or so. “The days where a blue collar guy like my uncle could have a nice life without doing much,” my friend said, “those days are gone. Gone forever.”
I’ve spent 10 years cobbling together a hodge-podge of skills that are now paying off in a way I never had expected. Web design. Acting. Comedy. Photography. Writing. Late nights. Little pretense. It doesn’t feel like the kind of career/life/path my University degree led me to believe I’d get, and I bet it makes my parents worried.
But it’s the kind of life that can give me a shot at living the kind of life Hugh describes: a normal, middle-class life. And then the thought hits me: The lifestyle my parents thought was normal will be thought of as exceptional to my generation.
My generation may have to work harder to get less.
That’s scary. And incentivizing. Get back to work.