I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately about the characteristics of Millenials. One interesting trend is that we are pretty conservative with our money, having been jaded by the recession. Instead of saving for the future by investing in the stock market, though, we are hoarding large sums in cavernous bank accounts and guarding it like dragons. I definitely feel like an angry dragon when bills roll around. I’ve even felt that way just walking past the Girl Scouts, camped out in front of the entrance to where I work, beckoning with their dangerous cookies. Everyone wants my money! I could seriously be Gollum.
Part of the reason I feel this way is because I struggled so hard and long to accumulate this pile of money. I’m proud of myself for doing it. I’m an educated young adult who couldn’t find full time work out of college, so I worked two part time jobs in retail until I could support myself and get promoted somewhere-anywhere! I did what I had to do. Welcome to reality, I am no longer ‘spoiled’ like many people want to peg my generation.
But at the same time, it is now hard-wired in my brain that all this money could disappear in an instant. It was such a precarious journey to get here! What if this is all the money I’m ever able to save, because my husband gets in a terrible accident, or we have an unplanned pregnancy, or one of us loses our job? On the one hand I’m grateful for the problem-solving and survival skills from art school, but on the other hand, I don’t really want to have to use them.
The bottom line of this silly Post is that I’m proud of myself for being resourceful and working hard in hard times. But the same universe that made it necessary to struggle, and which could take everything away in the blink of an eye, has also brought some safety and security over time. I hesitate to say that I earned it, because I’ve thought that before and been proven very wrong. But I now live a very comfortable, if humble, existence, with altered expectations. So i’m left to wonder at how much of my life’s current pleasantness is due to the generosity of some external force. Maybe other people? Maybe fortunate circumstances I don’t have control over, like coming from a supportive family?
Whatever the reason, maybe it’s a good thought to not take things for granted, and be thankful for the world around you. Maybe this is even the reason why my generation is supposedly the most optimistic.
Which is finally why I have started to invest my savings, in small increments. I snarl and growl over my small hoard of money because I don’t take it for granted. I appreciate what I do have, because somehow, after everything, I do have something. And according to an article on Psychology Today about wisdom, “Wise people generally share an optimism that life’s problems can be solved…”
Poor Hannah 