A bit of a rant here...
So I noticed my neighbors are loading up a semi truck with a professional moving company. I thought "wow they're moving? I didn't even see a moving sign! They sold in a hurry". The fact that they recently remodeled made it kind of a double shocker. So I stopped by to talk to them for a minute.
Turns out no, they're not moving. They were surprised I thought that. No, they're just moving their daughter to college.
That's right. Somehow someone who just turned 18 has managed to amass enough stuff to require a full ******** 53' semi truck in order to go to college. And apparently all of that stuff has to go, parting with it any of it during the school year would just be too difficult.
IDK about those of you who went to college, or skipped college and moved out on your own after high school... but genuinely curious how many of your got an Audi RS 5, a posh, loft luxury dorm (which required a waiver from their college since all freshman are supposed to live in dorms), and had your parents write a letter to your college getting you excused from the first week of school b/c of moving company labor delays? All things my neighbors nearly bragged about doing. By the way, I had to google the car. It's like 75k$! That's just a normal grad gift on top of paying for out of state tuition?
Better yet, do you think if you had gotten a windfall like that -- that you would have gone into school (or come out of school) any more or less prepared to live life as an independent adult?
I know each generation tends to think that the incoming generation is coddled and weak, but after this... I've lost most hope for humanity. Whatever happened to the cold, cinder-block walls and horrendous bunk beds of the yesteryears? The shared bathrooms that the deadbeats in the adjacent room refuses to clean up. The POS window-mounted air conditioner that somehow makes air hotter rather than cold. Isn't college supposed to be as much about living with privations and learning how to function on your own as it supposed to be about education itself?
I mean, when I look back at school some of the most fun I ever had was going to 0.10$ beer night at the bar (every wednesday when they would drain the taps and give you a mystery beer of whatever they needed to get rid of). Or equally fun was pulling all my coins together to afford late night taco bell. Or laughing at my friends who would donate plasma so they could afford to buy a pack of cigarettes that had to last them all week. In college all my money was earned in a crappy hourly job working for the school, so that money meant something to me. And with that shoestring budget you could still have a blast!
And forget the moving truck, my moving allowance was "does your shi* fit in the van so we can haul it in 1 trip? If not, it's staying here". And good god, a brand new Audi? My parents made me sell my janky as*, suspension-squeaking-everytime-i-hit-a-god-damn-bump car. They knew if I'd moved with it they'd be getting a phone call from me begging for a car payment or gas money (at best) and calling from jail with a DUI at worst! (seriously, send your kids to school with an uber gift card, not a car, unless they have a really legit reason for one).
But my question is... are those days gone? Is this now all about glitz+glam+comfort and less about having a new eye-opening experience where you learn how to function as an adult, using your own labor and resources to make it work? If so, then this world is doomed.
okay.
