Believing in Us
Remembering times like this.
It’s common for older generations to compare their youth to those living it today. I can’t help but catch myself saying, “When I was your age…” to younger people I meet, but for me, it’s important to remember what we went through. We did go through a lot.
My grandmother died just shy of her 104th birthday. She was as sharp as could be up until just the last year or two of her life, so I’d ask her questions about what life was like when she was young. She lived through the Great Depression, and like so many, they knew what it was like to not have food. It’s hard to believe that it wasn’t so long ago that farmers faced starvation if they didn’t grow enough crops that season. Every winter killed someone they knew. They had to store enough food to get them through the winter, and there was a lot of planning involved, especially for my grandfather’s family who lived and worked on a farm in Upper Michigan, far from the nearest town.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t remember us complaining about much when we were off to college. Like a lot of us, there was no college fund; our parents didn’t contribute a dime, and we were expected to be on our own, just like they were. We didn’t try to move home if we hit hard times because that wasn’t an option, and we just accepted it. When we left, that was it. We were on our own, no matter how bad things got.
What I don’t remember is, during the worst of it, none of us ever got down about our circumstances, and we didn’t blame anyone for anything. We just talked about how we were going to be successful somehow. I remember all the jokes and the group trips to the grocery store and cheap eats. Flour tortillas were pizzas, and they were cheap. So was popcorn and Top Ramen. I don’t think there was anything we didn’t try with popcorn, but in all of that, I don’t remember us complaining much.
In fact, what I remember most were the wonderful roommates I had that are still my friends today. I remember a lot of laughs. I remember the political debates, the talks about the girls we met, and the cars we someday wanted to own. There were so many jokes. Yet, what I remember most was us encouraging each other.
The negative roommate that would come along now and then didn’t last long. They were the transient ones. We were all out to build careers, so we didn’t buy into anything that would stop us. It felt like success would never happen, and there are plenty of grim memories, but complaining wasn’t what we did. It was always our responsibility to do something to improve where we were in life. Somehow, like our parents and grandparents, the expectation was that we’d make it on our own, so that was it.
It took me about four years to pay off my student loans, and there was no chance we would ever default. How we made ends meet was by finding ways to cut costs or do more work. We had a lot of people living in a house. If you couldn’t afford your own room, you shared with someone else. The whole idea was to keep moving ahead in our careers and live at a level we could afford. Yeah, there were lots of grim times, but the friendships, the laughter, the persistence, were our generation. We didn’t have anything but the shirts on our backs, but we didn’t let it get to us. There were no phones, cable TV, movies, anything but a TV with rabbit ears. It seemed like sitting around talking and telling stories was enough. I didn’t have a car, and we took the bus, walked, or rode our bikes everywhere.
I can’t put kids down for what they go through now. The world tells them they can’t make it on their own every day. I can’t imagine broadcasting that message to anyone. I still believe the exact opposite, that anyone can be a success. You just can’t let the world stop you, and you can’t buy into the negative mindset that seems so cemented in people’s heads. I couldn’t imagine ever telling anyone they can’t make it on their own. It seems cruel.
For these reasons, I have a hard time feeling genuine concern for the youth today, as I know success is in their hands. I believe they can overcome just about anything. The trick is getting them to believe it too. Hopefully, everyone who’s gone through hard times will chime in on this and encourage our youth to persist.