Odyssey: The Prolonged Adolescence

I read this editorial this week that I thought was quite interesting for us especially as seniors. In all actuality, when next year rolls around, this will be the first time in our lives that we really have some options about how to spend our time and what direction we will take. We are legally adults and yah the chaminade kids will all go to college because we are preconditioned for this fate. But we don't have to. If we wanted to, we could just sort of float...in limbo.

In this editorial, the author claims that there is an emerging "limbo", a new life phase that has emerged in the United States. There used to be four common life phases: childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. This emerging life phase is in this article referred to as the "Odyssey", a decade of wandering between adolescence and adulthood. People in their twenties are taking breaks from school, living with friends, going from relationship to relationship. They are in a sense trying different lifestyles on for size. But parents get anxious, they see this transitioning phase getting longer. Where is these kids’ direction? They are marrying later, having kids later, finding permanent employment later. This editorial in the New York Times reported that "In 1960, roughly 70 percent of 30 year olds had moved away from home, were financially independent, were married and had started a family. By 2000, fewer than 40 percent have done these things"...

It is no coincidence that this new phase is emerging now, it has everything do with modern conditions. The best social scientists have been trying to understand this new life phase. Their work concluded that this period revolves around the “spirit of fluidity”. Kids are trying to get away from the tightly structured childhoods that they have forever known up to this point.

How is this at all political? Well, this "spirit of fluidity" has reached the job market as well as social life. These people are not just slacking off. There is such intense competitive pressure currently in our nation and not enough opportunities; these people are discouraged.

Let's look into the future. What will this phase mean in 20 years? People are living progressively longe thanks to technology, which means that they will be staying in the job market longer. The population will continue to grow. This means that job opportunities will continue to be scarce and if there is a job available, it will not be paying well. There is no way that the government's priorities and policies will not be affected by this trend which is why I felt that it was so important to share this theory with you. When it is presented in this way, it really does seem that teenagers are the future.