Twenty-somethings, let’s rejoice. Our path to success has been one paved by encouragement and opportunity. We’ve been dubbed as the generation that has been coddled by our Velcro parents, but I think we’ve made major progress as a group of ‘do-it-yourself’ 20-somethings. We’re trying to make a name for ourselves in a society that has yet to come to terms with what we’re all about.

In an August 2010 article in The New York Times, ‘What Is It About 20-Somethings,’ reporter Robin Marantz Henig examines the possibility that 20-somethings are taking a significantly longer time growing up and reaching adulthood. Instead of finding a 9-to-5 blue-collar job straight out of college and settling down with our college sweethearts, we’re delaying the real world for a life of frivolity.

What society expects of us is to jump into the working world, begin saving for retirement and start taking care of our parents. But we’ve decided to embrace a more lax and bohemian lifestyle. In essence, by holding off on entering the real world, we have potentially endangered the social construct of what it means to enter adulthood. Instead of going by the book, us 20-somethings have subconsciously decided to reinvent our own terms of maturity, tossing out what society expected of us from before.

While Henig’s argument is valid, I find that her assumptions about Generation Y immediately categorize the 20-somethings of our generation into a stage of limbo. It’s not that we’re unwilling to jump into a life of meetings and deadlines, but rather that we’re seeing opportunities presented to us under a different scope. The paradigm of success that wasn’t available for our parents is now becoming more and more ubiquitous in 2010. The reality is that our expectations have changed about what it really means to be an adult. 

Lena Budd, a junior graphic design and English and textual studies major, admits she is in no rush.

‘If we’re expected to be working ‘til our late 60s, early 70s, I would hope that I can look back on the memories I made in my 20’s,’ she said. ‘It’s not because I’m irresponsible, but I really think I would feel trapped with a mundane lifestyle at 21.’  

The idealism our parents instilled in us when we were younger is the same entity that drives us to be more selective about the choices we make about our future. We’ve been brought up on the belief that anything is possible; so why would we want to compromise the success and opportunities we have now if there’s a chance that there’s something bigger and better out there in the world? Henig writes of this new stage of adolescence as ’emerging adulthood,’ a term coined by psychology professor Jeffrey Jensen Arnett at Clark University. 

‘To some, what we’re seeing is a transient epiphenomenon, the byproduct of cultural and economic forces,’ Henig writes. ‘To others, the longer road to adulthood signifies something deep, durable and maybe better-suited to our neurological hardwiring. What we’re seeing, they insist, is the dawning of a new life stage — a stage that all of us need to adjust to.’

I do acknowledge the potential disadvantages of 20-somethings not immediately entering the work force or jumping into long-term relationships. Henig’s observation is sound, and it’s reflective of our parents’ generation coming to terms with this new construct created by Generation Y. However, I want to believe that our recognition — of not feeling the need to be rushed into adulthood — is an indication that we are mature. We’re approaching adulthood and reaching an age in which decisions about our future are made based on our passions, not what society dictates of us. 

Angela Hu is a junior magazine journalism and English and textual studies major. Her column appears weekly and she can be reached at ajh01@syr.edu.

Published on September 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm