Meg Jay argues 30 is NOT the new 20. Oops.

In another wonderful TEDtalk, Meg Jay details how it isn’t good enough to throw your twenties away because we’re told that we have an extra 10 years to work it all out. We still need to make informed, empowered decisions in order to create the life that we would want for ourselves.
My psychology background grooms me to love the idea of making impressions upon our psyche in terms of the patterns of the choices we make. We become entrenched in the same expectation of outcome at an early age and it can become nearly impossible to get out of. Or more realistically, the patterns are so familiar that we don’t even see these things as choices! If you carry credit card debt from an early age, you expect to be in debt your whole life. If you know that you’re never going to dig up out of debt, you continue to make frivolous purchases that keep you in debt. If you have the expectation that men will always be one thing and not everything, you make compromises with the men you date, never seeking out the guy that will offer happiness in more than one or two aspects, whatever they may be for you, and so on. I certainly have some self-fulfilling prophecies in my life! Do you? Could you identify them? would you ever want to?

Millenials: love’em or hate ’em.

I recently started my MA at Carleton, and my first elective course is Human Resources Management. It complements my current work as a volunteer coordinator quite well, since I do a lot of recruitment, hiring, screening, etc. We started the course by examining the work force and talked about the 4 different generations that are all currently sharing the workplace. It’s difficult to negotiate benefits, project and program structure, compensation, feedback and management styles that will suit and sustain 4 different generations. I found myself belonging to the Millenial group … which I have to say didn’t quite please me. Although I enjoy any and pretty-much-all reminders of my youth and fresh-faced perspective (ahem.) the Millenials don’t exactly have the best rep in the working world. If you are born between the years 1981 and 2001, or thereabouts, and you’ve never Googled the term “Millenial”, don’t. The working world has an extreme disdain for us, apparently. Admittedly, I fall on the more elder end of that spectrum so perhaps I am not quite as selfish, tech-savvy and uncompromising as others, but I still seem to fit into this category. (No comments please.)

I realized this all too quickly as the prof began speaking about Millenial expectations in the workplace, and I thought, “What the heck is wrong with that?” … repeatedly. What’s wrong with wanting recognition for your hard work? What’s wrong with wanting immediate feedback from your supervisor and a genuine relationship with the leaders of your organization? What’s wrong with looking at failure as “Needs Improvement”? (Ns on report cards…. anyone remember that scoring system?)

I guess the only word that I would take serious offense to would be ‘entitlement’. I know what entitlement looks like and I can’t speak for everyone but I work really hard for what I’ve earned and couldn’t see myself doing otherwise. However, there seems to be this real backlash against our generation actually GETTING anywhere. I know it sucks that things move really quickly and for whatever reason I can’t unplug, I hear you, I hear you, I feel ruined most of the time too, but I still think I deserve a modest retirement and those two things do not equal one another.

Anyway, I can’t pretend to sum it up as nicely or as visually as Mr. Matt Bors, who put together this wicked comic strip telling everyone to relax, so please check it out. It’s pretty awesome. And then still don’t Google ‘Millenial” it’s totally upsetting. Just stay totally ignorant and totally superior, it’s way better!

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/09/opinion/bors-millenial-comic-strip/index.html?sr=sharebar_facebook

The Arboretum at sunset.

Had a little fun biking back from Carleton university last night. My bike path home takes me straight through our nation’s capital Arboretum. At sunset, the bats were flitting around squeaking, the golden hour was falling on every leaf and flower, and there was a full pregnant hush in the air, waiting for twilight. Even as I passed other cyclists or runners enjoying the perfect summer night, I felt as if I was the only person in the trees. The coolness enveloped you like a hug. It felt really special and so I fooled around with filters to try and bring out the magic of the space and time. I felt as if I was in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, right before all the faeries come out.
I imagine this bike ride will be a really effective way to decompress after my wickedly hard masters classes. Looking forward…

30 signs you’re almost 30 (with 1 sign I’m almost 30)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/30-signs-youre-almost-30

I’m pretty much positive that I blogged about this chick’s last BuzzFeed list on early vs. late 20s. I think mebbe she living in my head. I have to write about this one tho cause I also saw a post  on FaceBook for a 5K run I would like to do … and have started putting together a team. A la BuzzFeed article, re. marathon times. Now keep in mind, the 5K I wanna do is called the Color Run and there’s no winners or losers or scores and you all throw rainbow paint at each other’s white clothes, so there’s a delicious sort of illegitimacy to it. You do still run 5K, but it’s disguised in all this fabulous happy hippy stuff. You might have one near you, too.

http://thecolorrun.com/

Like, how cool does that look. And now I can be part of the club that does athletic things and posts it on FaceBook so everyone can see how happy and healthy I am. See? See?!

Positive thinking and affirmation.

I have been trying something new lately, it might be something you already manage on your own. I had some advice that it might be worthwhile to channel some positive thinking into my life? Sounds simple I know but it’s been sort of tricky for me.

You know how you watch crime tv shows and the family is talking about the person who’s been murdered or whatever? No, you don’t spend all your time watching true crime? Oh, how well adjusted of you! 🙂
Anyhow, you know how the family usually describes this person as having a happy disposition, as being someone who lights up the room, etc, etc… I wonder sometimes about how I would be described after I died. Smart probably, boring!! But positive, probably not? I can get somewhat negative, and that, upon reflection, is just too bad. I would hate to kick the bucket and have people think I was a total downer… There’s a positive thought! Haha
But honestly, sometimes I wonder why I put so much pressure on myself and why I can’t ever just ride things out and see the good in the situation. And then someone, whose opinion I trust, just sort of said what’s the harm in trying?

And so now I have tried this. As I go to work, where things can get a bit slow over the summer, I say “today is going to fly by, and it’s going to be really fun, and then tonight I’ve got this and this to enjoy”. Simple right?!

You know the first thing I have to do is convince myself that it’s not completely hokey to think positive thoughts. Thinking positive thoughts, for the first little while, felt really forced and weird. But I think I might be getting the hang of it. It’s a process and all it really means is looking on the bright side of things. Some people are really good at this from birth but often my internal monologue sort of sounds like this blogger, Katie Burrell. Too funny!!!

click here to read Katie Burrell!