A gloomy future?

As the academic year has only just begun, I couldn’t help myself but to think about what will happen to me when I graduate. Is there a bright and shiny future waiting for me? How not to  let he news get your mood down, when we hear is that most graduates are still unemployed and live at their parents’ by the time they turn 30 years old? Here is a portrait of the “lost generation”.

Even the Chinese are to face a pandemic of youth unemployment as economic growth doesn’t create enough jobs for the well-educated and highly qualified generation freshly arrived on the labor market. The exact same situation can be observed in Europe and all around the world. That so called “lost generation” still dreams of the comfortable life and a well-paid job a degree has to offer. Or that’s what they have all been told since childhood. “Go to college, get an education and you will win your independence as a woman” my own mother once told me. Or was it more like a thousand times? The thing is that she meant it as all mothers do. They received a better education and had a better standard of living than their own parents, and their parents had a better standard of living than their own parents before. How far can that growth go? What level are we supposed to reach? It seems that human beings cannot get enough of improving things- the problem is the cost of that quest. It has been proven that our thirst of economic growth already impacts the planet and its other inhabitants. But that’s another story.

My mother also told me that one day I would find what I’m good at and that I will succeed in doing it. I started to believe I could realize any of my dreams because I was unique.

However, as strong as parents’ encouraging words can be, becoming a grownup has never been so difficult. First of all because most of the time, in real life, you cannot leave your parent’s nest so easily, because you would have to find a way to pay your own food and rent. The hunt for student jobs is getting tougher. With tuition fees going up and grants still distributed to a small minority, a lot of college students are looking for part time jobs. Extra hours in pubs or restaurants, summer jobs that prevent you from doing an internship, night shifts in supermarkets…

I’m not speaking about personal experience, but I can say that I might know someone who knows someone who has already experienced such a double life. Student slash warehouseman slash waiter slash group leader. It has almost become a trend to use the “slash” word while introducing oneself to someone. Anyway, the point is that sometimes, with the pressure, students cannot focus on studying anymore. And all their dreams are suddenly broken.

Is it only a French phenomenon? As an illustration, let’s observe a Dane and a Spanish friend. I agree that there is a huge gap between their countries’ lifestyles and French ones; you cannot compare their social systems. In Denmark every student is paid to study whereas in Spain college tuitions and fees are going up for instance. - But it points out the fact that even if they do not face the same reality, and don’t prepare the same diplomas, they do share some common knowledge and make the same sacrifices (I’m referring to the student jobs thing). Subsequently, you start to realize how ordinary you are. For the first time you meditate on how easy it would be for anyone to replace you. We all go to work in other places and adapt ourselves there without difficulties, we eat the same McDonald sandwich, we are disappointed by the same zombie blockbusters, and we tell the same jokes… Globalization has turned us into clones. So what will make one so special, how can we fight? That competitive labor market is scary.

It can sound depressing, but in fact, most people try not to think too much about it, and live day by day. They create small problems not to think about big ones, they just do things, sometimes without thinking about the consequences. Sometimes they regret it. They consume, a lot, which has got to have something to do with the fact that they are not quite sure about their future. They want it all now so they make sure they won’t miss it. It comforts them in a way. Different types of behaviors can be observed. Some will take a year off and go for adventure for example. Most students are still working through precisely who they want to be, with the only hope that they will be able to be that person.

Additionally, there is a contradictory aspect in these behaviors because the generation Y (“why”) doesn’t think of the consequences for itself but thinks about the consequences for our environment in the long term. We tend to care more for Planet Earth than for our own kind. We are getting more aware of our impact and ecological footprint, energy use and we are more concerned. We take action and try to shape the future, to make the world a better place. In the end, we do believe there will be a future, and we still want it to be bright. But people don’t have enough confidence anymore to say “I’ll be a part of it by doing this”.

Given these points, I will say, quoting a movie extract[1], that youth is when you don’t know what will come next. Therefore, maybe things are not that bad, maybe the World is just getting younger.

Marion S

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[1] « Les derniers jours du monde », http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1390405/