Modern: Partially Employed & Grad School

A few years ago, one of the front office ladies exclaimed, "OH! You need to write a book about your life!" I don't remember the story I was telling her but I just waved it off because, at that time, my life seemed like a complete bore. I guess traveling overseas by oneself and selling products to folks I'll never meet was boring. Then. Now it seems like a far off dream. Since that remark I have moved a few more times between the Midwest and East Coast in search of better jobs and more education.

Now my life is similar to a few thousand others where I'm partially employed, going to grad school full-time and completely broke. I am mildly obsessed with social media, watch CSPAN, Bloomberg & CNBC religiously while downloading alternative music from iTunes based on The Currents playlist. On the weekends I play local league sports, cheer on my alma mater in a losing sport (football) and swill beer like I'm still an undergrad. I am your average late twenty-something and it kills me to say that.

In my macroeconomics class we all look different but the only real outliers in the class are those who are over 40 and there aren't many of them this time around. This lack of originality is summed up by a comment I had from my interviewer a week ago, "You're overqualified and highly recommended." I didn't get the internship. This is happening over and over and over and it kills me. Perhaps it's the area I live in (DC) but I find that you are not allowed to be original. They prefer a status quo, BUT the one that they set. So I'm following that lead, getting a masters, starting to learn a new language and becoming even more socially networked.

With this, I am curious, will the next generation get shoved into a group of highly over-educated, lack of experience bracket or will they get the chance to move out of their little area and seek new opportunities and be encouraged to do so? I just wished I had to the guts to break free and go to the beat of my own drum - but when entrepreneurship is stymied by current markets/banking procedures and socially, it just seems best to stay the course that is recommended. Bummer.

Maybe it'll change when I'm forty.