This is True, Just Not for Me

I spend hours at work reading things on the internet that are not related to my job or my continuing education (in the formal sense). I read from sources that more or less align with my world view, because I am human, and from a few reputable gossipy trash sites that the filters will let me get to. Some days I get little bits out of what I read, occasional history lessons, reasons to become a vegetarian and/or a better person, affirmations that i'm not a complete twat, confirmation that I am exactly the person that i don't want to be.

Last semester I took Psych 101, because I needed a fluffy class to flesh out all the harder sciences and numerous labs i was taking. My professor often sent out links to articles that he thought the class would find relevant, both personally and for the class. When I ran across an article on Slate about the inability for millennials to grow up I thought,"how fitting," and composed an email to my professor.

I never sent that email.

I read the article twice, I couldn't tell you why, and the first time through it was a very good assessment of the people I was surrounded by. The second time through hurt.

I am in some ways (thank goodness not all) this person.

Yes, at 26, I am a millennial. I don't like it but as far as discussing demographic I fall firmly into the first decade of this group. I am a product of the internet, of instant, of a very tiny world.

And like most millennials I am lost. You know that, you've read this blog once or twice and are well aware that i can and will bather on about myself and my lack of happiness and my inability to connect with people. I'm basically a narcissist, don't want to think that but it's more true than not so much so that in twenty or so years the DSM of the day will have eliminated narcissism because it'll be the norm.

That little break through isn't special, you've seen it before and you'll see it again.

Here I am at 26 working on what will probably be a second bachelors degree with the hopes of medical school. Part of me is already looking for something new, i am restless and tired of being broke. I like to label all of this as wanderlust.

Wanderlust is now defined as the avoidance of failure .



Does anyone want to fund a spring break trip for me?

A Boomerang: The Diversity Seminar

My mother is a nurse. As a nurse my mother is expected to take so many credits per year to keep her education up to date and her certifications in order (I also have to update my certs every once in a while, I have four, count them four, in pants fit). Last night she came home after having a lunch seminar and explained that people are "so oblivious."

The seminar was a discussion of diversity, the area I live in is still quite homogeneous despite the huge growth it has seen in the last twenty or so years. The nurses and administrators discussed that on top of the language barriers that they deal with there are also education gaps and cultural differences. There was a discussion on the correlation between health and wealth (it's an obvious one, more money means better health insofar as better healthcare). People apparently couldn't understand why people who live below the poverty line or $15000/year have children, eat less healthy foods and have worse health issues than the majority of the people who, as it is the second richest county per capita this year with a median income of $112000/year, live above the poverty line.

But people aren't seeing past the Latino families that fit that picture and there are quite a few, but they see them as a blight something to put up with because if we didn't how would the grass get cut and the bathrooms get clean? But the reality is (with that stupid stereotype aside) the poor people in this area aren't just Latino. I live well below the poverty line and with the help of my mother I am not homeless or into illegal activity to get by. I am also white. Blond and blue eyed, white. I have health insurance. But this week I had to choose, an x-ray with a doctors visit with a co-pay of $50 or my student loans. My credit score suffers this month because of an accident. But my finger is not broken, rather it has a nasty bone bruise and I was right when last week I decided that broken or not I didn't have the money to take care of it.

When this was brought up during the seminar, and yes, my mom during a discussion said "I have a boomerang," before explaining my wiggle into diversity, some of the long time employees of the hospital were confused as to how a white girl could get into such a predicament, why didn't my mother help me out more?

Diversity isn't necessarily a racial/ethnic thing. Here, though understanding cultural differences couldn't help, socioeconomic diversity is the bigger issue. I am considered upper-middle class. I live well below the poverty line. My mother shares the same class distinction and makes a smidge more than half of the county median income. So why is our class so different than our income status? Maybe it's because hard work wins nice things or maybe it's because lucky us we live in a place where people don't see class as clearly as they do in other places. And it should be surprising that people who are well educated and work hard can't get ahead but it shouldn't be that surprising if you watch or read the news.

I am an example of what diversity training is for.