I keep telling myself that this blog will be different. Almost as if I were in an abusive relationship,I keep making up excuses as to why my past blogs failed, why this one is different and why it'll work out this time.
Hopefully, because I have a better idea of what this blog will be about, I will have higher chances of being successful.
Let me start by saying that I am by no means an expert on anything. I only hope that this blog will provide an outlet for me to to share things that I find interesting. Because of my job, my age, my religion, my upbringing, etc. this blog won't have postings about new songs I like or about celebrities doing ridiculous things (I think there's quite enough out there about that already and I would never have the commitment to have a post like .
This blog will be about living as a young urban professional in the city of Chicago- learning from my job, exploring new hobbies, trying to find a semblance of progress (be it through friendships, promotions or getting into business school). I know that the term "yuppie" has long had negative connotations of self-righteous youngins' hanging out in cities, drinking overpriced drinks and thinking the world of themselves, but I'm here to tell you that times have changed.
The recent economic downturn that simultaneously collided with college graduation was a wake up call. I had a particularly unique upbringing, but even I, who never thought of myself as a selfish, entitled person, was shocked by how bad things got, and how fast. When I think of myself and my friends, I realize that we make up a very special group of young urban professionals. We were a group that thought we were unstoppable- often middle children- we grew up in time where our older siblings had gotten all the crazy out in the 80s and we learned from it- our parents were too tired to police us too closely and yet we rarely rebelled because we saw what older sister had done. We went to pretty good high schools and pushed ourselves in sports and academics- later on, we moved to private colleges and universities or well-known state schools. Parents were often the source of financial stability for us and our college years were relatively care free. We were well insulated against the other things going on in the world- it was easy to forget that we were having a war on terror, strained international relationships with the middle and far east and that the US was slowly falling behind in terms of R&D globally.
We graduated around 2008. Our assumptions were that everything would be simple from there- the world was our oyster, and we were 21 or 22 and invincible. Then,that fall, we realized that jobs are not guaranteed, those who had not properly prepared were left struggling and the world was not such a rosy place when the majority of your friends were getting laid off- some even before they started.
This blog will be a perspective of someone who has lived through this change in the cultural dynamic. In fairness, I should mention that my upbringing was different, so my perspective may seem to skew in a bitter direction when I talk about the trends among my age group. This is not intentional, and stems only from the fact that sometimes I simply cannot relate. My parents were immigrants. My upbringing was chaotic, on the west coast and not in the typical "nuclear family" structure. I struggled financially through high school and college, and paid my own way by working multiple part time jobs at my very affluent private university. I was one of the lucky ones- I prepared well in advance for my career, and have been in consulting since graduation. I have been lucky that my company did not participate in massive lay offs. I have been successful at my job monetarily, and have learned a lot about the Financial Services industry in particular, but not without learning a lot about corporate America, both good and bad along the way.
So here I am- I'm reclaiming the term "Yuppie". For a long time it implied a sense of entitlement, of undeserved luxuries and frivolous living. Looking at my peers, sometimes this is true, but not always. Some of the stories I tell here might not have an ending because the ending hasn't happened yet, but I plan on telling these stories anyway. I'm a renaissance yuppie.
