In Transit

The Huffington Post stole from me. I swear to God they did. The other morning I visited the site like I normally do and in annoyingly huge maroon capital letters were the words, 'THE LOST GENERATION." What followed was a story about a girl who graduated from college the same year I did with a degree in art history, and how she struggled to find a job. She still doesn't have one, and had to move back home with her mom. The story continues about the current crop of graduates and how they can't find work and the recession and how life sucks you should just kill yourself, blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, The Huffington Post totally stole from me, because just 2 days ago I was sitting on the bus thinking about how me and my friends and all the people who've recently graduated from college should be considered the "lost generation." If you didn't know, I recently got hired as a full-time employee at the company I was interning for. I was excited, surprised, relieved, overwhelmed when I got the offer, because it was a long-ass road that got me to where I am right now. Two years of sending in probably about a hundred applications and cover letters, going to interviews, phone interviews, group interviews, accepting unpaid internships post-graduation, finally sucking it up and moving to New Jersey to continue pursuing my dream of working for a magazine, taking yet another unpaid internship. Leaving that internship to take my current one because they were willing to pay me. And finally finally getting hired.

So I was mulling all this over on the bus the other day, and how in those two years I watched as I wasn't the only one having a hard time out of college. Friends and classmates struggled to find work, moved back into their parents' house, took jobs that had nothing to do with what they studied and majored in. Pretty much no one around me had any clue whatsoever as to what to do in their lives, what the next step was. And especially that first year it seemed we were all stuck in this weird limbo, this in-between stage straddling the line between childhood and adulthood. And we did pretty much everything we could to distract ourselves from the fact that we were very, very lost.

And that's when I thought that we were kind of this "lost generation." I coined this term in my head, and then thought it was kind of stupid. And then the goddamn Huffington Post had to go and use it for their front page story.

Reading through the story made me realize how both lucky and unlucky I am. Lucky because at least I'm better off than the girl in the story (but she was kind of asking for it, I mean she majored in art history) and at least I didn't have to settle for a job at Starbucks or some job that didn't even require a college degree. Unlucky, because in a way, I kind of feel like I am settling with this job.

Now don't get me wrong. I enjoy what I do. I do social media for all the company's clients, writing their Twitter and Facebook updates. And social media is definitely a growing, constantly changing, interesting and relevant industry. But it's not what I wanted to pursue initially. I majored in journalism. I want to work for a magazine. If I had my way, I would rather not be limited by 140 characters. But a job is a job is a job. And after two long years of rejection, there was no way in hell I was going to turn down a job. A real job. It is what it is though. And even though I vow and promise myself over and over that I won't give up on my editorial and magazine dreams, I don't know what the future holds for me. I guess we'll see. I may still be a little lost, but at least now I've got a map.

WTF of the Day

Have you ever been getting dressed in the morning and you just can't decide what to wear. Mary Janes or boots? These are the tough decisions we used to have to deal with every day, but not any longer. With Prada's Mary Jane leather boots, you can wear both! Get the stylishness of Mary Jane shoes and the comfort and warmth of a boot all at once. Big plus if you're a fan of that "flesh" color that only applies to white people! And for only $1,500 these shoes can be yours! Two styles of shoes for the price of one, how can anyone pass this up I ask. How?! Oh, what will Prada think of next?

I love this

The Flaming Lips and MGMT sing an acoustic version of "Kids"



The Flaming Lips are incredible live, I got to see them last summer at Free Press Summer Fest in Houston. They put on one hell of a show, complete with giant hand props that shoot out green lasers, Wayne Coyne crowd surfing in a man-sized plastic bubble, crazy video projections and lights, cameras on the end of their microphones and copious amounts of confetti. Pretty much one of the most amazing and elaborate shows I've ever seen.

Another reason I love this is because I'm pretty sure I'll never get tired of MGMT's song "Kids." I still listen to it a lot and every time I do it reminds me of dance parties and being carefree and friends and fun and laughter and spring and summer and Austin City Limits Festival 2008 and a late night run to Kerbey Lane where MGMT's album played in its entirety and we discussed its merits and singing too loudly in the car and drunken nights and hungover days. Too bad MGMT kind of sucks now, but "Kids" will forever be one of my all-time favorite songs.



Good times.