good advice for the young'uns

My generation of Americans (and those younger than us) are at this unique point in history where we've grown up largely under the assumption that, generally, we have the right (which is actually more of a luxury) to pursue the college degree(s), career(s), and goals we decide are best for us -- and that, in some form, the resources exist somewhere for those things to happen. This is different than my grandparents' generation, and even to some extent my baby-boomer parents. I never heard the struggles about "life purpose" and choosing a career that "fit" them. My grandpa (dad's side) worked in an industrial factory of sorts. The basic idea was that you did work so you could provide for your family. There wasn't all this angst over making the "right" decision, not "wasting time," fear about not being good, etc., that I know I went through (and am still going through) and that many college students go through. Add in trying to "discern God's will for my future" and it gets even more fuzzy at times.

I ran across this video -- I don't even know what the main idea behind the series is, but this particular video caught my eye because these college-age students were interviewing Ira Glass, who hosts This American Life on NPR. While I'm not an avid listener by any means, I do have an appreciation for the quality of the storytelling craft of the show, and I really respect his work.

I found this to be interesting because it shows the typical questions many college students are asking, and how Glass responds -- one of the main things he said was, basically, don't be afraid if you are really horrible at what you're doing for a while, or that you're wasting time, because you'll eventually have a sense if it's what you should be doing or not. I think a lot of us get really hung up on the idea that we'll be bad at what we try, so we don't want to take the risk or try the wrong thing, when really, as Glass points out, we'll probably be bad at it for a while until we get experience behind us.

Anyway, you can watch it for yourself, I thought it had some valuable insights into young adult culture.

roadtrip nation -- Ira Glass interview