Plans

Inevitability is setting in. Pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks are back (WHOO!) and I had to put on the only long sleeve shirt in my closet this morning. Fall is in the air, and Vanderbilt is putting its nose to the grindstone. First exams are coming up, job applications are due and test results are coming in. My dad emailed me his hotel reservation for graduation in the spring. Sigh. I thought the year had just started.

In 30 minutes, one of my best friends will find out her MCAT score. This is the second time she has taken the test and a lot is riding on this number, this simple little number. If her score goes up, she’ll apply to med schools and start the education to become a doctor that makes my liberal arts undergrad degree seem like preschool playtime.  But if her score goes down, my friend will face crushing disappointment. Or so she perceives it. She’s wanted to be a pediatrician since high school and all of her plans are in the balance right now, all based on this score. Her value to the schools is only a number, but I know she’s so much more.

One of the things that people need to know about our generation is how much we want to be valued. We’ve been raised to achieve, to set ourselves apart. We didn’t grow up playing, we grew up training, It was a competition from the beginning, because we were taught that our value was contained in what we could produce or achieve. My friend says she knows that her score doesn’t define her, but in a way, it does. She might be able to explain on the application her passion for people, but an admissions officer will never be able to see her carefully bandage the twisted ankle of one of her campers or her calming effect on my frazzled nerves. Because of culture’s obsession with achievement, the way my friend wanted to help people may have to change.

You’d think we’d be ok with change, but we’re not. Millenials come from parents who scheduled playdates and practices, and we do it to ourselves. Go with the flow? Not with a med school application in the works, running a service organization and a part time job. We’re ADD about our activities, but we don’t like changing our plans. And leaving things up to chance? Yeah, right.

We want to control what happens to us because our achievements are how we are evaluated. “And I need at least a ___ on my ___ to get into ____” is a phrase I have heard after many a dramatic monologue from an exhausted college peer. We make plans (or plans are made for us) at such a young age and when we figure out that they might not pan out exactly the way we wanted, we’re at a loss.

Lost at 22? It’s not entirely groundbreaking, but I think it’s more difficult for us because we have such high expectations placed on us. Sometimes, though, things just don’t work out the way we want them to. We’ve got to keep moving, keep searching for things that will fulfill us as people, not other people who will see us as just things.

As I’ve mentioned, our generation has many challenges we need to rise to, and that’s fine, but we need to rise to the challenges as people, not test scores or resumes. Plan B shouldn’t have to stand for Plan Bad or Plan Bust. We need step away from Plan A and Plan B and just be. Plan Be. Be yourself, and be happy with that.  

 

The Investigation Begins

I distinctly remember watching the fireworks explode at 12:00 am January 1, 2000. They burst into huge flashes of light and sound, and then just as quickly as they lit up the sky, they were gone.  And looking back, I didn’t even care. I was ready for the next pattern, the next boom – at age 10, I couldn’t even focus for 5 seconds on one beautiful array of color and light before I wanted to see the next one. Such is the blessing and the curse of the ADD millennial generation – and I knew it from the moment the millennium started.

We exist in a temporal world where our information comes at us as loud and bright as a firework, and disappears just as quickly. Blogs, sound bytes, video clips, status updates, tweets, 15 minutes of fame, web series. We have a lot to process, so we process fast. We’re texting on our iPhones, YouTubing the latest video, Facebook messaging a friend, all while Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Even those with staying power resort to shock and awe to remain relevant. Today’s biggest music icons (Lady Gaga. Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj) are in a constant state of reinvention, all to keep us tuning in for the next performance or video. Say what you will about the quality of our media consumption, the quantity is unparalleled.

However, despite our brand consciousness (craziness?), fragmented media habits, and what is generally considered a “me first” attitude, I want to peel back the layers on the millennials.  Just from my experience with my own peers, I can tell you we’re a series of paradoxes. We want to serve others, but we care primarily about ourselves. We want to be adults in the real world, but we love our extended childhood. We are driven, but would often prefer for things to be handed to us. And the contrary is true as well: many any of us come privilege but would prefer to earn accolades for ourselves.

We’re aware that we’re paradoxical – and we’re aware that our distinct form of learning and processing isn’t the only tribulation we face. We’re also aware that we’re inheriting huge, complex challenges. A rocky economy, a volatile political climate, and environmental threats – these issues will soon be ours alone to deal with.  Are we going to face to the uncertainty, taking on the necessary responsibilities, or let it cripple us as we shrug our shoulders and look around for someone else to fix it?  

As a part of this generation, and as someone who is about to break the protective barrier and enter the real world, I want to examine whether or not we can rise to the challenges we face. Not only that, I want to know what we think, what we value, what we believe. How do we feel about ourselves? What does the rest of the world think of us?

I’m lucky enough to be living in a living laboratory, Vanderbilt University, where I can examine the both the little quirks (texting without looking at our phones in class) and the big driving forces (differentiating ourselves as both individuals while still being relevant to the community) of the millennial generation. All of this will indicate something about what is to come in our country – the good, the bad and the ugly.  Whether or not you are part of this generation, the millennial coming of age story, which I plan to tell as honestly as possible, is consequential. The foundation we are laying now is the foundation of the future of our country in a critical time.

Of course I can’t make sweeping generalizations about my generation based on my peers here at Vanderbilt, but I do think we represent of critical slice of what is to come. By understanding driven and passionate Vanderbilt students, I want dig deeper into what is at the heart of my generation. Yes, as individuals, we’re paradoxical, have ADD and face unprecedented challenges, but, together, we’ve been primed to make an impact. One firework may not last very long, but when they’re set off at the same time, they can illuminate the darkest night.

Analysis of 5 Blogs

As a college girl and card carrying member of the millennial generation, reading blogs is right up my alley. Like my peers, especially those at a competitive top twenty school, I value my own time above everyone else’s (for better or worse…probably worse) so I enjoy the easily digestible, sound bite, quick draw McGraw format that’s used in most successful blogs. In reading the Huffington Post’s Guide to Blogging, I was compelled by the bevy of information about blogs at my fingertips, most which I had never really considered at length – from creating buzz to finding a voice. (The history of the Huffington Post was interesting but I didn’t quite make the connection with how that would help my blog… again with the me thing?! I think there might be more where that came from.)  

While simultaneously considering all the advice about blogs, though, I felt a distinct sense of “Well, duh.” Growing up with my fingers usually at a keyboard and not a book, I could tell that the Huffington Post Guide’s goal was to patiently, albeit wittily, explain the ins an outs of blogs to someone unfamiliar with this crucial form of media. I know what makes a blog successful, because I’ve grown up following them. To me, this is the “traditional form of media”, not the hour-long news specials and newspapers and ye olde taverns of precious generations.  Perhaps me giving a slight cold shoulder to the explanations of the Huffington Post Guide is just the narcissism that has sneaked and streaked its way across my generation and college campus, but at the very least, I am self-aware. I (we) read blogs because they are fast, passionate, and to some extent, very self-centered – just like us.

Needless to say, I was happy to put down the book that told me how it was done, and get started on the blogs that made it happen.

Andrew Sullivan on TheDailyBeast.com: The most appealing to me of the blogs, Sullivan writes with a quick wit and an on a variety of topics that keep my generational ADD satisfied. I very much appreciate his tendency to include quotes and opinions from his readers, a refreshing addition to the blogosphere. Sullivan’s usage of photos and videos add color to his already vivid writing. I particularly enjoyed his live-blogging of the RNC and DNC in the past few weeks. The only way to remain relevant in such a vast network of reporting is to sometimes go minute by minute and I found his commentary brief and enlightening. Finally, not in terms of writing, but in terms of perspective and ideology, Sullivan’s conservatism is refreshing for my generation that is progressive on social issues.

Gizmodo.com: I also have very much enjoyed reading Gizmodo, much to my surprise. Even though I grew up in a technologically saturated world, I know that there are those out there who would surgically attach their electronic devices to their bodies if they knew said device probably wouldn’t be obsolete in .5 seconds. I am not all up on the tech jargon, nor do I really care to be. However, Gizmodo provides a great balance between the tech-sissy, the tech-savvy, and the tech-sassy (Some of the comments from the tech community can get very heated! Perhaps we should add technology to the American religion-politics taboo.)  The balanced writing and knowledge of the broad audience reflects some of the ideas in On Writing Well.  All in all, the variety of formats keeps the site fresh (“What to Buy in September” was a list, “Is it bad to shut down my computer regularly?” was a question and answer piece, and “Lenovo X1 Carbon: Holy Crap” was a review) and the endless number of fascinating topics is enough to think even my grandfather (“What’s MyFace?!”) might want to check out Gizmodo.

Well Blog on NYTimes.com: Again, a variety of topics based on a general theme makes a strong selling point to my distracted friends. “Ooh, rare infections!” “Aah, organic food!” The headline fireworks notwithstanding, the simple, recognizable format of the NYTimes.com blog page creates a navigable page for maximum clicking. While the headlines were often attention-grabbing in typical journalistic fashion, I often found myself missing the snark of Andrew Sullivan and the writers of Gizmodo when reading the Well Blog. It is extremely informative – highly valued in a time of information and misinformation overload – but it can often read a little dry. The Huffington Post Guide suggests writing like you speak, and, if some of the writers of the Well Blog are in fact embodying that lesson, I’d think twice about inviting them to a dinner party.

Howard Fineman on the HuffingtonPost.com: After looking forward to reading one of the bloggers who wrote for the site who literally wrote the book on blogging, I have to say, I was slightly disappointed. While I very much enjoyed the writing of Fineman, particularly “The Man Who is Obama’s Problem,” an excellent profile of a man he sat next to on a plane, I was hoping for more timely posts, and a bit more multimedia integration. Sullivan can go back and forth on topics, live blogs, photos and videos, while Fineman seems more structured and deliberate in his writing. In my opinion, Fineman often displays stronger writing chops, but in the blogosphere, that isn’t the only piece in the puzzle.

David Roberts on Grist.org: Again, I thought that David Roberts may have missed the “blog often” memo from the Huffington Post Guide. With just five blogs since August 14, I feel like he might not have his finger on the pulse as much as the other blogs. He also writes extremely long blogs, which could indicate why there is so much time between them. I enjoyed his piece on post-truth politics, but it was so long that I had gone back to Gizmodo.com and hit refresh to see if there was anything new to read.