Article June 29, 1998 Issue

DON'T BE SO HARD ON GENERATION X

Stacey Collins

The Boston Globe

As I glance through the slew of articles and books that try to define my generation, I can't help but laugh. The baby boomers who write them have no trouble overlooking an aging Mick Jagger, but are quite comfortable targeting our generation's occasional loafers. There are more than 40 million of us born in the United States between 1965 and 1977. What did we do to deserve to be lumped together under such derogatory stereotyping?

As I consider the criticisms that we're laid back about our careers and future, I think of friends who graduated at the top of their class in law school and of some female friends who are excelling in computer science and engineering, fields that at one time were dominated by men. If we appear to be unconfused about career choices, it is because we are weighing so many more options than our parents ever had. Thirty years ago most women had three choices if they wanted to work outside the home: teacher, nurse, or secretary. Today there is pressure to move beyond those traditional careers, and yet most of us cannot use our mother as role models for becoming CEOs, doctors, or lawyers.

Our parents wonder why we are waiting to get married. Everyone is just too darn busy. With two people trying to establish careers or attend graduate school, matrimony keeps getting postponed. The years fly by and you realize with some astonishment that your parents had three kids and a house in the suburbs when they were your age. We shrug it off, thinking about the breakup rate of early marriages. The longer we postpone marriage, the better the chance it will last. Cynical? You betcha. Keep in mind that we grew up with 50 percent of all marriages ending in divorce.

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