My daughter Alex graduated from college this month. Of course My wife and I were there proudly to watch as our youngest achieved this key life milestone, like her two sisters before her. I have some thoughts on that. But to set the scene I must go back two weeks before.
Last month, Alex and nine other senior classmates from the University of Michigan BFA Theater program visited us in Los Angeles. They had come to town to showcase their acting talents for invited industry VIP’s at a local theater. Most of these about-to-graduate students bunked at our house. For a few days, I was thrust into the midst of a human whirlwind. I experienced up close the frenetic lives of eager 20-somethings just launching their careers. It was insightful, to say the least!
Later in Ann Arbor, we listened to one commencement speaker after another. Each offered the usual bromides about the future. “Seek your passion…Give Back…Pay it forward, etc., etc.” It occurred to me during this fusillade of sage advice wrapped in fervid commands to sally forth and storm the heights of societal accomplishment that the events were off somehow. I kept thinking back to my brief, yet intimate time with Alex’s acting “troupe” in LA. Then I realized what was bothering me.
At graduations, the graduates themselves – the “kids” – should be the ones doing most of the talking, not their handlers, not us. When I interacted with them in LA, I realized how smart and fully formed Alex and her classmates have become, with comprehensive world views and endless energies. These are not awkward high schoolers or tentative underclassmen. They are confident graduates. They are adults. They have a lot of interesting things to say.
It’s not surprising really. These young women and men share four key traits that make them unusually fit to tackle the onrushing future, whatever it may offer, wherever it may lead.
First, they comprise the most diverse group yet in American history. Even in this small group alone, they are female and male, black and white, gay and straight, American and foreign born. They hail from from lower, middle, and upper income backgrounds. They are comfortable in a post-racial, multi-cultural world. They do not struggle to overcome inner prejudices because they have never embraced them. They benefit from a wide range of viewpoints.
Second, they are the most connected, technologically enhanced people in human history. For more than four days, our house was filled with the incessant sounds and sights of numerous laptop computers, smart phones, and tablets. It seemed like these “kids”were never far from visiting Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and a dozen other avenues in the virtual world. I saw at first hand how comfortable they are with amazing electronic technology that their parents could not even have dreamed about when we were young. Able to reach out in cyberspace literally to billions of people and documents with ease, they have access to the accumulated knowledge of the human race, most of which is completely free of charge or censorship. Generally, their telecommunications are fast bursts from flying fingers. At any point in time, they are aware of what dozens, even hundreds of other people are doing across the nation and the globe.
Yet they spoke well also. During their visit en masse, I made a point of talking with each of them at length one-on-one as opportunities arose. I wanted to see how they would present themselves individually in casual conversation, without electronic aids or interfaces. I am happy to report that the theater background showed in every one. Each was verbally articulate.
Third, they are the most collaborative group I have encountered in recent times. For days, I watched as they helped each other to prepare each one’s short monologues and to ready each one’s headshot and resume’ hand-outs for the theater showcase. They have honed their interactions to a fine craft over the past four years, way beyond when I was a student and most of my colleagues “did their own thing” separately.
Fourth and perhaps paramount, they have a wonderful attitude. You would never know this from our mass media, who tell us constantly about the difficulties of the young today growing up in The Great Recession of the past several years. We are told they are shackled by mountains of student debt and disheartened by a apparent dearth of decent jobs. Pundits say these “kids” will not live as well as their parents, that the America Dream is receding from them quickly. Maybe so, but these “kids” don’t act that way.
Now it’s no secret. Making a career in the arts is difficult in any era. As an artist and architect for the past 40 years, I have the scars to prove that statement. Indeed, I have often wondered if I should have done something else for my life’s work, maybe something more predictable, less frustrating. In the end, one must come to terms with the facts that most in the arts will not make it big and many will just barely get by.
Nevertheless, these young people seem to know and accept the odds. They are proceeding with eyes open. For the potential gain, they are willing to undertake the venture. They are positive. They are hopeful. They have that most wonderful of qualities, unbrideled enthusiasm.
How can this be in the face of relentless media negativity? Well, I discovered that this group has a big advantage. They inspire each other regularly. I watched as they encouraged each other verbally throughout the day. Somehow they were able to suppress competitive egos and support the efforts of each other. Each certainly wanted to get the big break. But they seemed just as interested in their friends getting ahead. Their quiet humility was deafening.
I know this was not a scientific sampling of a whole generation. Indeed, the ten young women and men from Michigan comprised a very special group of highly accomplished individuals. Regardless, to me, intuitively, they are emblematic of million of their peers.
So I am not worried about the “kids”, these Millenials who seem so different from us, the aging Boomers. Certainly, they are a different tribe from the Me Generation of the 60’s and 70’s. In their collective consciousness, you could call them the We Generation. Yet, they are similar to us as well. Their innate positivity reminds me of the excitements of my long lost young adult years. They helped me recover memories of the passion of those times.
Thus, I learned important lessons this spring from the graduates of 2014. I learned to listen closely to them, because they have more wisdom than I could have imagined. I learned to admire and imitate their enthusiasm, because their precious emotional fire rekindles the awe of and pleasure in a wide world eager to embrace talents and dreamlike theirs. In the end, I learned simply to enjoy what they have become.
So congratulations graduates. You have performed wonderfully. The future is bright. As the old Roman said, “Vale and Valete”. (Farewell and be strong.)
And parents…you can rest easy. The “kids” are alright!
Unfortunately, it’s hardly quantifiable but there’s a purported pattern out there called the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory. You should look into it. It breaks American (and English and then European before) generations down into a four-part cycle. As historical progress reaches highs and lows, the kids born into each spot along the wave grow up and react accordingly. Millennials, like the Greatest Generation, grew up in a crisis: War on Terror, Great Recession like WW2, Great Depression 80 years before. A crisis forces a cohort to be more socially interdependent and progressive. Hard to prove, fun to discuss.
I think your point about the Stauss-Howe Generational Theory is interesting. You were not here during the Vietnam War and the stagflation of the 1970’s, so I would argue it was not all sweetness and light for the Boomers either. I personally have been through five major recessions and lost jobs several times.
The real contrast between the Greatest Generation and later ones is that they committed early to things that later cohorts (listen up Millennials) seem to be putting off: long-term jobs, marriage, homes, kids, etc. Remember, they had grown up with plenty of horrors from global depression and war. The GI’s and their Rosies just wanted to forget all that and move on. So young folks were in a hurry to grab the good life as defined back then. It was a more formally religious, more structured and prudish society; also unfortunately a more segregated, more oppressive of women, less environmentally respectful society to be sure. But it built the biggest middle class in history and arguably had considerably less divide between rich and poor, People committed to responsibilities and most stayed with them for good or ill. Something to think about.