Hello again chums! This week I thought I would talk about the state of the country and jobs, the topic of this is ‘Will we be a lost generation?’

So I thought I would start this off with a little about me and my ambitions. Firstly, hopefully, most of you have see that I am some sort of writer – an unpublished writer but that’s ok. I write because it is fun and I enjoy myself, if success came from that field I will be ecstatic but that is something I’m not really in control of, so in reality I’m a part-time teaching assistant and coach, mainly rugby, but other sports too and I help out in classes with kids (a little difficult as I am dyslexic so I can’t spell too well and am rather bad at mathematics!) but hey I can point them in the right direction. I really enjoy working with children, it is massively rewarding as they are interesting and unique (and say some funny things) but it is not something I can do for the rest of my life and because of my learning difficulties I would not be a very successful full time teacher, so what’s left. I did what I suppose most of us do – 37% of people my age finish school, get some good grades and go to university, get a good degree, but then it falters. Here I am, I do have a job that I do love but no really opportunities to progress or move forwards. So I view myself as quite a typical twenty something with; a good education, fairly smart, good work ethic, good family and all the rest. The same I suppose a most of you reading this, so what going on? Are we a lost generation? I really can only view this from my point of view and the brief insights my friends have given me about their own lives(maybe this piece will say more about me then society) I have severe dyslexia which is hampering me with jobs in general but I’m not going to use that as an excuse. I’m finding getting a full-time job difficult or almost impossible to get any job that will open up a career for me and when I look around I see a generation having to take the brunt of unstable economic growth, housing bubbles and the insatiable greed of the upper classes, which mean we are saddled with debt will. We are faced in education by lectures and professors that had FREE university education and can’t be bothered teaching us. I certainly think my degree is entirely useless, it’s not been a door opener in any job situation – it just ticks a box so companies want to know how much other stuff we have on top of that, hence why most of my friends, who finished university around the same time as me have had to go and retrain as carers, paramedics, teachers and the like – completely different routes from their degree subject. I did a history degree – and am learning to fly helicopters to have a career, so what’s the point of higher education if it doesn’t mean anything anymore, it’s just saddling us with thirty odd grand’s worth of debt before we leave.
As speaking as someone who wants to be a writer, take the writing game, you have to find an agent, who will then, over dinner or something, maybe pass you on to a publishing house which may take years to publish you. The writing world is controlled by people who are English graduates and that causes a restriction as storytelling isn’t about perfect English, it’s about emotions and events – I use this as an example of how difficult it has become. Writing has always been hard, the golden gates are locked by people who may have wanted to be writers themselves and are always going to have a bias to what they would have written and too much of a critical eye leads to good stories being shelved. The other problem is that jobs are difficult if you don’t have connections or tons of experience already. It’s just baffling that we are now going to have to shoulder the burden of our forebears because they couldn’t look up and see how much damage they were doing. Take London for example, all the most vibrant jobs are around there, all the people to meet are there yet someone like me can’t live there- I can’t even afford the train down there, so how is this a fair society? We are handicapped from birth with the parents who know each other giving their children the jobs –a closed shop in banking, the BBC and all the rest. What as a society are we trying to do?
We are a lost generation, we have no voice, we have no power, we are saddled with the failings of our elders – this awful baby boomer generation – who could never live up to their father and mother – that better generation who fought in the second world war. I speak mainly of my experiences and of being British in a society notorious for its class-ridden hierarchical structure, but this problem isn’t just ours, it’s all western countries that have this problem; an aging populations and an unhealthy obsession with money. We have lost our way and are now where paying for it- with the strain falling on my generation. It is no coincidence that mental illness, suicide and general unhappiness is at an all time high! We are stuck, a generation of six million odd, in the United Kingdom, who can’t really spread their wings and are not given a go by people who had free education and good prospects, I know I’m ranting a little at the world around me but sometimes you just need too! i have no issue with working myself to the bone and racking my brain so give me and everyone else in the same boat as me a chance instead of just playing it safe or giving the jobs to your daughter/sons or your friends children. There are good people out there from America to Italy in the West who can change the world – they just need a chance.
Anyway, have a think if you are a CEO or own your own company or whatever. If you have the opportunity to give someone who you don’t know a shot then do it, maybe someone who is not going all the right certificates and stuff but is inventive, lively and seems a good person – and see what happens, if you’re in a similar position to me i recommend trying something creative/purposeful to help you feel better about things – try writing or set up a YouTube channel or go help out the Red Cross or some other charity, just do something you love and hopefully it will work out for you.
Enough of that though. Have a good week. I hope it’s a good one with either no snow or lots, which ever you fancy and I hope to talk to you again next week.