October 18, 2005
Bubble about to pop
I am now about midway through my first semester of my final year as an undergraduate student. While I know what I would like to do next year, or at the least, I think I know what I want to do next year, I feel a level of anxiety that I really never felt before.
Up until this point in my life, as in most young people’s lives, I was on a track. While I made some decisions, the most important ones were beyond my control. For example, I was basically on track to graduate college for as long as I could remember. While it is true I chose to go to Fairfield Prep and Quinnipiac University, in the bigger picture, where I went to school is much smaller than the fact that I did go to school.
Even the decisions I made at school were not as significant as I once thought. Yes I did choose what classes I would take each semester but those classes were apart of a curriculum or smaller track towards my major.
The reality is after I complete my education here, I will be on my own for really the first time in my life.
Not only will I have to figure out what specifically I want to do in journalism but I will have to figure out how to find a job, where I want to work and what the best way of finding the said job is.
After securing a job, I will then have to go out and find a more permanent place to live, perhaps get a new car and figure out to balance my funds – perhaps the most difficult of my pending challenges.
My world that I have grown so accustomed to inside my little bubble is about to pop…and I am about to put everything I learned over the past 21 years into motion.
Posted by Jamie on 9:54 AM | Comments (1)
October 13, 2005
Challenge facing today's youth
One of the most unfair challenges facing today’s youth is ageism. Ageism is the stereotypical and usually negative stereotype against young people. Now, it’s not that I have never experienced ageism; it’s more that I try to forget the times that I have so when I find myself victim of it, I get very frustrated.
Recently a friend and I went to dinner at a restaurant in Trumbull. During our hour or so there, we became increasingly evident that not all customers were considered, or subsequently treated, equally.
Despite being seated promptly and ordering within a reasonable amount of time, we were treated as subservient diners for the majority of our time there. As our glasses dried out and meals consumed, the wait-staff regularly passed by us to make sure the other diners – the older diners – were content with their dining experiences; unfortunately, passing by us was the closest they got to us until we finally were able to flag down our waitress and request our bill after nearly 15 minutes of trying.
It would not even be worth telling the above story if it was an isolated occurrence, however, unfortunately it is much more common than uncommon. There have been at least three times in recent memory where friends and I were treated as lesser customers for no apparent reason other than our younger ages.
I am not the only person who feels this way either. I know several other young men and women who feel similarly. One friend from Quinnipiac University feels like she is regularly followed around in stores because she is younger than other customers.
This is also not a phenomenon restrained to Connecticut or even the New York metro area. During a trip in Nashville, Tenn. last fall, a college friend and I visited an art gallery where we had an extremely uncomfortable experience. Despite a considerable number of other patrons in the gallery, we were the only two being followed around – and interestingly the youngest.
My point is not to complain, although I could see how it could be perceived as such, but rather to raise awareness. If even one person reads this and thinks twice about following someone around just because of their younger age, I have accomplished something.
Posted by Jamie on 3:47 PM | Comments (1)
October 9, 2005
It just takes one...
It just takes but one kid's immaturity and stupidity to make an entire generation look bad. I recently read an article in the Connecticut Post about a young man who is believed to have destroyed numerous street signs, stop signs and dozens and dozens of mailboxes for no apparent reason.
Like so many other young people, I enjoy cruising the back roads of Fairfield County. It is an inexpensive, relaxing way to partake in casual conversation. While driving we are not pressured to buy anything or avoid any sort of conversation. We also can be very relaxed and just bounce from one conversation to another.
However, while driving we often suspect people are thinking that we are doing something wrong. I have never been in a situation where I did anything illegal while driving at night - let alone drinking and driving or partaking in any drug substance. I never destroyed nor have I ever stolen any property - town or private - and yet there is often an eye of suspicion on my friends and I; suspicion I can totally understand but do not enjoy.
Teens often complain that no one trusts them but until we act how we wish to be treated, the eye of suspicion will follow us wherever we go. It only takes one bad apple to ruin a grove.
Posted by Jamie on 6:15 PM | Comments (2)
October 7, 2005
A realization
Last weekend I found myself riding around in the back seat of my friend's gray 1993 Nissan Altima. It was a very familiar situation, my friend Jon driving, other friend Jeff sitting shotgun and me riding in the back seat. Like old times, we were just cruising around the back roads of Fairfield County for the sole sake of having relaxing environment in which to talk...and get lost for the heck of it.
Although numerous topics were discussed, one in particular hit us all with much more immediacy and importance – our comings of age - than any other.
In but seven months, the three of us will be college graduates, if all goes according to plan, and we will be finally entering the metaphorical 'real world' that we have heard rumors, threats, testimonials and predictions about for the past two decades.
Really the whole point of childhood, we agreed, was to prepare for the day we are pushed from our nests. Really only two things can come from that traumatic event - either you crash face-first to your ultimate demise and are remembered as someone who had huge potential but failed miserably or, and I really like this one, you spread your wings and fly.
Although I am confident that my friends, Jeff, a senior at the highly-acclaimed Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Jon, a senior a senior at Southern in New Haven who recently completed an intensive full-time internship at the State Capitol in Hartford, will spread their wings and fly away, I am still worried - about them and me.
Despite getting a solid education - first at Fairfield Prep and now at Quinnipiac University in Hamden - I am still worried about the future. With so many wild cards on the horizon, I am not guaranteed success. This is perhaps the thing that scares me the most. I guess as the months between my college degree and I become weeks, days and ultimately hours, my future will become more clear. Whatever happens, however, I feel confident that, for the most part, I made all of the right decisions and would do little differently.
Posted by Jamie on 8:53 PM
"Starting Out" and being Twenty One!
So this is what is like to be 21. I have reached a point in life I have had only dreamed about for, well forever, and now I am here. I remember when I was young, I used to watch commercials that said you had to be 18 years or older to call, and now I am well past that. A week past my 21st birthday and I have yet to go to a bar or a casino - the two real things I couldn't do prior to Sept. 10. I guess maybe that is why today feels no different than two weeks ago. I was expecting myself to go to bars and the casinos all the time when I turned 21 but the fact I have not means, I guess, I am growing more *shiver* mature? Maybe it is just that I am so busy with the whole college and work thing.
People have said the world goes by so much faster as every day passes and I am beginning to definitely believe it. High school flew by but college, damn. It feels like I am still in high school waiting to wake up from a very long, very real dream.
Posted by Jamie on 10:48 AM | Comments (5)
