Meg Jay Analysis

I have never thought so much about my future, until hitting eighteen in year twelve. The stress of attending uni, studying, securing a job and the big one- getting married! Marriage, I’m sure, has been something every teenage girl looks forward to. As for me, I have never been so skeptical of such an exciting life event.

Two impulses are at work during this period. One is to be set as early as possible; the other is to keep experimenting. A balance struck between the two determines what one's twenties will be like.

The “Catch-30” stage is the reality of all the beliefs and concepts one may have had during the “Trying Twenties” stage. Both genders feel “narrow and restricted” and blaming one another becomes common between friends and families. Most of the topics which turn into debates and arguments are related to career and personal choices of a person’s twenties. Choices which may have sounded perfectly appropriate during the “Trying Twenties” now seem unfit and unsuitable. Everything seems to be contradictory from the previous stage, such as the life which was built during the twenties for the future. The idea of getting married becomes important, and “the single person feels a push to find a partner.” Couples already married start thinking of having children and building families. Arguments between couples are frequent, especially with those who are married for over a decade. The feeling of dissatisfaction is natural among older couples, and divorce may seem to be the only route for agreement. Lack of care and support among couples is what primarily sums up the “Catch-30” stage.

When I graduated high school I had no idea what I wanted to do, all I knew is I was done with public school and could live my life as what I thought an adult was. My father and most of my family believed it was important for me to go to college, and get a kick start with my life. Though they weren’t wrong, I had no idea what I wanted to do and no discipline to do my studies to the full extent of my abilities.

In this period of time, it is hard to advance in a career field without having education further than a high school diploma. Hence, the reason many people are starting families and careers later in life because they cannot simply

“The Defining Decade” by Meg Jay was an interesting and helpful book to read. The theme of this book is about how important are twenties are in building our future. We usually view our twenties as a decade of having fun and avoiding hard decisions. However, Dr. Meg Jay pointed out that the decisions we make in our twenties can have a profound impact on the life we will be living 10 years from now. Dr. Meg Jay provided advice that we need to hear, so that we will become healthy adults in all areas of our lives.

The video resonates with me as a first generation college graduate. It puts a smile on my face knowing that someone was willing to put their foot down on granting everyone the opportunity to gaining an education. I always tell myself and others that an education is the best gift someone could ever give themselves. That being said, I am pleased to see that Justin Morrill was able to give that gift to Americans across the globe. 125 years later, I am thrilled to see that Land grant universities are still in effect and doing what they can to provide access and enhance opportunities for everyone watching a higher education. I can relate to this video on a personal level considering I was a first generation college graduate. Knowing that there are other people who wanted to attend college as bad as myself makes me feel like we can all make a difference in this world of higher education. I am grateful to be where I am, gaining a higher education as a graduate student and in return I am thankful that everyone is given that same

The average age that a person has kids is around the age of twenty-nine (Bates). So not only does one have to balance bills, focus on a career, they could also have to take care of a life. To be fully prepared to enter the real world, an individual must basicly have there life planned out as soon as highschool. It is very hard to put these heavy choices on a kid as young as thirteen years of age. A decision a person makes on what they do affects them for the rest of their life, so why make a decision that is so heavily weighed, be even allowed to be chosen by someone so juvenile. Many teens are worried about gossip, relationships, sports, and social status. College is just something a highschool thinks of usually around junior year, or early senior year, even senior year where a high school student makes their decision about what colleges to apply to, or accept to get into; they are also distracted with SAT’s, ACT’s, Friday night lights, grades, and school dances like prom or cotillion. Being sidetracked by all these factors and many more a logical decision can not be made without taking even more time to not just double check a decision, but triple check, or four times or more. An individual can never be too sure about

Degrees take years to accrue, thereby “lengthening … the road to adulthood” (479). Lengthening this transitional period gives pre-adults enough time to become comfortable with it, making their changeover to adulthood all the more difficult. Hymowitz juxtaposes adolescents of the 20th century and the pre-adults of today to compare the similarities between these two groups. Adolescents of the 20th century were less likely to attend college because it was not the necessity that it is in current society. By not attending college, these young adults secured a career more quickly and were launched into the throes of adulthood more quickly than the pre-adults of today.

My initial response is yes, reading and literature matter to me. Staring my education at an older age has made me think deffrently. I am able to comprehence and express my self more elecotly

Why does society pressure children to grow up so fast? We face pressures from the media, friends, family and our schools. Children have to choose an estimated career path of which they would like to pursue when they come towards the end of their secondary education. I am a firm believer that a child is only classified an adult when the suffix on their age doesn’t end in ‘teen’. As yet, 17 and 18 year olds still need to decide upon a career path on which they can embark and pursue jobs in the future. Something has to be done about this pressing matter in today’s society, as careers chosen at university are being increasingly wasted.

In the TED Talk “Why 30 is not the new 20” Meg Jay discussed with her audience concerning the new trend of blowing off your 20’s and leaving everything that they could have done so in that decade to their 30’s. Jay soon after emphasizes how such a trend should not be followed and in the contrary have their 20’s be the years in which an individual begins to build the life they want to live.

Through the use of survey’s, an interview, and personal history, I researched the values of my generation to find that with the strong emphasis on careers in our society, college students are likely to not value having children to a great degree any more.

Being at the point in my life, where it is time to make the decisions which will mode the rest of my life has got me to the point of. When I was in my senior year of high school, I was so happy I was going to be officially out of the hell-hole I called a high school and ready to be an “adult”, according to the law. When I graduated, there would be o more waking up at 6 o’clock every morning, taking the train all the way to Cambridge, and being there all the one until 3:40 or 4:45 if I had to stay after or detention. All my class and I were so consumed in were those thoughts that we were basically free! We can now go off into adulthood with college, jobs, and cars. I guess we had got so consumed in the idea life would be so much easier without the burden of attending our high school anymore, we forgot what adulthood actually meant and was.

As I continue to reevaluate my life and all that I had dreamed and hoped for myself when I reach my mid thirties, I did not think I would be still in school trying to get an education. Reflecting back on my past experiences and decisions I made I would have done a lot of things different. Life seems to bring about maturity, perseverance and determination in people and I believe at this point in my life I am determined to succeed because I have been battling a college degree on and off for the past 15years. Pretty sad to admit but reality has finally set in and I have decided that