David Brooks's column in today's New York Times is one of the more interesting pieces he's written in his tenure at America's Newspaper of Record. It's not that he breaks any new ground, it's that he discusses a cultural shift that is interesting and perhaps definitive of a gap between the generations.
I know about the "quarter life crisis" and I have heard friends in their early- and mid-20s explain that they don't have to know what they're doing in life until they're 30, because "thirty is the new twenty." Brooks describes the "odyssey years" as a sojourn between adolescence and adulthood.
Whether the 20-something odyssey years are past, present, or future for you, I think it's interesting to reflect on the increasingly common experience of a distinct developmental phase between "college" and "career."
David Brooks: Not bad when refraining from cheerleading for the right
I first encountered Brooks as a college student in 2001. He had written a feature for The Atlantic Monthly about the cultural differences in "red" and "blue" America. As he was researching the article, 9/11 Changed Everything, but he stuck to his original goal of offering a pop-sociology-type analysis of the red/blue map from the 2000 election ascension of President Bush. The article, which I cannot access online, was entitled "One Nation, Slightly Divisible." I have consistently been unimpressed with Brooks's writing as a columnist for the NY Times, but I enjoyed today's column, so, credit where credit is due.
What I have noticed about the "Odyssey Years"
I understand that the idea of "higher education" was an unthinkable luxury for most of the world's people for most of our history. Yet in 20th century America, we believed that after high school, our trade schools would prepare people for skilled labor and our universities would train people for the professions. Now, with so many people holding academic degrees, our society faces new challenges. I am pleased that we still, to some degree, see college as a time of exploration and personal growth, rather than simply vocational training for a career. But I lament that our economy does not seem to require that many highly educated people. In any case, I see fewer and fewer people emerging from college at age 21 or 22 with a clear idea of what they want for their lives. And, regardless of goals or ambition, a college degree is no longer a ticket to economic security. I don't have hard data, but I get the sense that there are millions of restaurant servers, Starbucks baristas, and other service industry workers who hold bachelor's degrees or higher.
I assume graduate school admissions continue to expand to accomodate the growing numbers of people who believe they need a higher degree to find a job they want. With the average age at college graduation increasing, and the increasing numbers of people who eventually pursue graduate education, many twentysomethings are delaying their entry into their "careers" until 30 or later, whereas their grandparents likely would have already been working full-time for a decade or more.
While I haven't seen new data on average age of first marriage in a while, my observation is that today's young adults are delaying marriage much later than their parents. While many still marry early and many more continue to be "marriage minded," it seems that more and more people have absolutely no expectation of being married before age 30.
Taking longer to get through college and graduate school, waiting longer to embark on a career, marriage and family, my generation seems to be making a departure from previously established norms. As Brooks notes,
They see that people in this age bracket are delaying marriage. They’re delaying having children. They’re delaying permanent employment. People who were born before 1964 tend to define adulthood by certain accomplishments — moving away from home, becoming financially independent, getting married and starting a family.
In 1960, roughly 70 percent of 30-year-olds had achieved these things. By 2000, fewer than 40 percent of 30-year-olds had done the same.
I do not see a generation loafing aimlessly. Rather, it seems to me that many twentysomethings are serious about enjoying a wide range of experiences in their youth so that they can later give their focus to more traditional aspirations such as marriage and child rearing. Brooks agrees,
The odyssey years are not about slacking off. There are intense competitive pressures as a result of the vast numbers of people chasing relatively few opportunities. Moreover, surveys show that people living through these years have highly traditional aspirations (they rate parenthood more highly than their own parents did) even as they lead improvising lives.
Lest I come across as too generous to Mr. Brooks, I will say that his conclusion was disappointing and not very compelling:
And as the new generational structure solidifies, social and economic entrepreneurs will create new rites and institutions. Someday people will look back and wonder at the vast social changes wrought by the emerging social group that saw their situations first captured by “Friends” and later by “Knocked Up.”
I enjoyed "Friends" and "Knocked Up," but I don't really get the feeling that many people actually believe that shows and movies have much basis in reality.
Dispatches from the Oddyssey Years: Here's My Story... What's Yours?
Briefly, I graduated college at 21. At 18 and 20, I took 6-week long summer road trips with a friend. I got married immediately after graduation, and waited tables for 6 months before beginning grad school. I worked one job for a year, then another for two before planning to go back to school. The second foray into grad school fell through just before I was to begin, so now I've moved and am waiting tables again. I'm now 26. In the past 5 years, I've lived in Oklahoma City, Boston, Orlando, Atlanta (briefly), and now Orlando again. At 21, I thought I had my whole life planned out. These days, it's more of a mystery. In some ways, I followed the pattern of the "odyssey years," and in other ways I followed a more tradiitonal path. Ultimately, it's led to a lot of confusion. But, that's my story.
So, is there any validity to the "odyssey years?" Can it be a valuable time of self-discovery before embarking on 3 or 4 decades of marriage, career, and family life? Or is just a slacker excuse to waste away what could be productive years?