“Never grow up” is a slogan that has been sold to society, our generation in particular, countless times. Peter Pan uses it as his trademark, it is written into carefully thought out song lyrics, and you hear it from parents and mentors. Between technological advances and a pressure from the media to “look the part,” it is easy to see us as a generation that is growing up too fast. We are frequently described as an instant satisfaction generation; we send messages with a click of a small plastic key, and we make meals by “just adding water.” But just because we might not spend enough summer nights watching the stars or playing in the backyard with the neighborhood kids until dusk, it does not mean we have grown up too fast. We are not growing up too fast, just differently. “Never growing up” is something we have all reflected on: never having to deal with high school exams, applying to college, graduating college, finding a job, finding a family, or finding happiness. This is a past that, though fun and wonderful, doesn’t have the substance that the life in front of us has. The realization is one that we want to embrace to better ourselves, but usually makes us simply depressed about our lost childhood. In many ways our parents’ and grandparents’ generations were the generations growing up too fast. Generations before us have had to grow up the moment they graduated from high school, and some even before then. The Greatest Generation (those born in the period before 1928) were immediately drafted into the army or workforce of World War II. What could possibly force you to grow up faster than going to war? The Silent Generation (adults born 1928-1945) grew up as children struggling during the Great Depres-
sion, and advocating for their rights during the Civil Rights Movement. Young men and women from these generations had to take a stand and fight for what they believed in. Despite the fact that we are growing up during a time when the Untied States was waging two wars only 2% of millennial males (according to the study, The Millennials: A portrait of Generation Next by the Pew Research Center) are military veterans. This percentage is shocking considering that during the Baby Boomer generation, 13% of men were veterans, and during the Silent Generation, 24% of men were military veterans. Maybe it isn’t that our generation is
By Claire Bryan to know what we want to do in life and are pushed in school, especially at a college preparatory environment like Parker to find our passion in high school. But you have to consider that our society has also become a society more accepting of the idea of changing careers or majors. In colleges there has been an increasing amount of phone calls to college professors from parents. Ingrid Hayes, Director of Admissions at Georgia Tech, refers to over-bearing parents as helicopter parents and is disappointed in the lack of independence our generation has from our parents. In the article “Hovering Parents Need to Step Back at College Time,” CNN Health, clinical psychologist Mark Crawford states that our generation consists of “perpetually anxious adults who take very few risks outside of their comfort zones.” Childhood should be something you look back on as an adult and miss, not lament in all the ways you regret you didn’t properly spend your childhood. And though you should love the days you spent playing hopscotch, and every once and a while you should take a break from your homework and break out the sidewalk chalk, you shouldn’t beat yourself up about being a kid during the 2000s. You should love your last years before you become an adult. Enjoy these days of thinking about college, thinking about what you are going to be when you grow up, because pretty soon it won’t just be something you state as an adorable second grader. Grow up because you can’t wait to be an adult. Be inspired everyday to work for what is coming next. Don’t just live only for the day in front of you, live for all of the days that you have yet to live.
We are not growing up too fast, just differently. growing up too fast, but that we haven’t had enough opportunities to grow up. We are babies compared to the generations before us, generations who had no choice but to lead themselves into war, or march down the streets in protest. I, for one, believe that our parents think we are growing up too fast because they measure us to how much we are involving ourselves in complex gadgets, but in my eyes that’s not much of a measure of maturity. Their generation was getting married and starting a family younger than ours is. It is more than just a trend to wait longer to get married in order to have the time to have a successful career; it is a change in the way people live their lives. According to the Pew Research Center Publications study of the Millennial Generation (the generation born between the 1980s to early 2000s) “just one-in-five Millennials (21%) are married now, half the share of their parents’ generation at the same stage of life.” In terms of career, some may say we are pushed these days from a young age
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