Young People: How to Stay Optimistic When Our Talent is Fermenting Under the Auspice of ‘Economic Recovery’

By: Sonja Marie Francine Diaz

Berkeley, California

Undergrad, University of California, Santa Cruz Alumna

Grad School, University of California, Los Angeles Alumna

Law School, University of California Berkeley Alumna

I always thought that the years ending in ’9 signaled the end of a decade. Unfortunately, a smart-ass friend said that it was the years ending in ’10 that meant the decade was over; he was right. As such the first decade of the new millennium is coming to an end, I am 25, just finished my first semester of law school, in the midst of a successful re-transition to the Bay Area, and yearning to be back in LA, pursuing meaningful work, surrounded by friends, family, and allies.

For 7 of the past 10 years, I have been in college, grad school, and now law school. I am not certain this is how I imagined my early twenties. Somewhere between the countless hours of 90210, the Real World when it was in Miami, and Martin, I always envisioned my 20’s at a chic 9-5 pm job, after hour drinks, bright lights, date nights, and then onto the next. The recession and the realities of being a woman of color in a global economy changed all that.

I’m not going to lie-the life of a student is appealing-but in writing this blog, I beg to wonder what it would mean to apply my skills and knowledge outside of the research lab and in my own urban community. I am still in school because the job I want, the creativity I yearn to apply, the projects I seek to innovate are fermenting under the auspice of  ‘economic recovery.’ I figure its better to be in school to gain the skills necessary to promote viable public policies when and where I want them; but the reality is that serving someone a cup of coffee and giving them their Xeroxed reports as a young Chicana with a Masters degree is not sexy.

I know that my generation has been adversely affected by the Recession; so much so that we will now be the first regressive generation since the Baby Boomer generation. That is, the first generation that will fail to surpass our parent’s generation in income, holding constant inflation, economic capital, and productivity. Blame it on the lack of growth in real wages, the collapse of the mortgage industry at the hands of predatory lending, infinite disparities, a changing global economy, what have you. What it means is that millions of young people are being denied the opportunities afforded to their predecessors; disparities that only grow bigger when taking into account socio-economic status and racial/ethnic background.

For my family and loved ones, it means trying times and lots of ingenuity.  It means that my brother, who has a BA in subjects he adores, is working at a slow-fast food restaurant (he can explain) while pursuing his true passion (photography) in community college.  It means that my younger sister will be matriculating to Cal as a freshman in January, anxious about increasingly unaffordable loan debt and an uncertain future. It means that my boyfriend spent our first 3 years back in LA after a stint in SF looking for meaningful work, with a side of health insurance and a living wage. For me, it means academic perpetuity with a side of justice.

But there is good news to be had. I look around and the sheer economic hustle taking place is inspiring. Where else are young people juggling multiple side jobs, part-time work, and their dreams to put food on the table and a new basket on their Bianchi bikes? I kid (sorry Hipsters), but there are some major successes happening. For one, we are reimagining our fate as a regressive generation into one that includes room for inspiration, coalition-building, support, and giving. In these trying times, families and friends are working together, in solidarity, with love, and with full knowledge that working together is not the nice thing to do, but necessary to move forward. DREAMactivists are putting their bodies on the line to ensure that the US is a global competitor with an educated workforce, young people are using social media as an avenue for creative expression, college students are fighting unfair threats to affordable public education across the country, and most of us are able to do all this with the assurance of Obama health insurance. Victories, no matter how small, are especially ingenious given the circumstances.

So since, ’10 is the end of the decade, let’s celebrate our ingenuity and promote justice and not just service. Let us continue to be vocal, to keep perspective, and to persist. I know that in the halls of Bay Area academia, the LA sun shines bright, and I like many others, are doing what is necessary to move forward, to support others, and to attempt to challenge the regressive label into a recognition of the youthful hustle (err ingenuity) that characterizes us all as we strive to achieve with masked opportunity.