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Yes, the world has changed.
Globalization. Inter-connectedness. Innovation. These are some of the most familiar buzzwords in our world today. But all these words communicate one simple reality: the world is changing. Advancement in technology and the implication of those inventions on the political, social and economic realities of the world continue to be documented. Unlike any other before, we are the generation of young self-made billionaires, unprecedented political and growing global consciousness, promise and change. In the midst of all this, the prevailing rhetoric that we as (privileged) young people receive or believe has equally changed. By contrast, our parents were pragmatic in their considerations of choosing a career path - many of them simply did what they were called to university to do. Many of our parents saw a job as simply that, a job – a means to an end to pay bills and take care of their families. On the other hand, we appear to be increasingly infatuated with the idea of following our dreams and pursuing our passions.. We increasingly see employment as about more than this – as about leaving a legacy and gaining personal satisfaction and being true to ourselves. Where our parents thought local, we think global. They were more inclined to think about keeping a job; we are encouraged to create jobs by starting up our own enterprises. Where our parents saw education as a non-negotiable (and saw business, law, engineering, medicine as the pan-ultimate degrees), the success of many a college dropouts is causing lots of young people to see education as a nicety but not a necessity. And those who accept education as being of value find themselves bombarded by choice. Unlike our parents, we are more autonomous. Free to choose what to study and to follow previously unconventional paths: music; fashion design; art; literature; filmmaking; and photojournalism. Questions like ‘is this degree marketable’ are slowly giving way to questions like ‘is this what I really want to do? Is it what I love?” The trendy rhetoric of the time and who or what the media celebrates increasingly influences the answer to those last two questions. We probably change majors and drop out more than the generation before us. Yes, the world has changed. There are strong arguments that we should be careful to consider things such as gifts, talents, natural abilities and passions. But I find - and I stand to be corrected - that this kind of thinking also tends to romanticize reality. This is something we cannot afford when we are dealing with a country, a continent and a world where the majority of youth are unemployed. The brilliant and overwhelming successes of the Jobs, the Gates, and the Zuckerbergs are inspiring but they also tend to over-shadow reality. We often forget a few key facts about these successes: they
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