Category: Bloganuary

Bloganuary writing prompt

If you could un-invent something, what would it be?

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I’m a millennial *queue annoying montage of people saying that over and over again.* But I am and growing up we were force fed the idea that college was our only option for a good life. However, as we know now, our generation is the over educated and grossly underpaid. So when the topic of “If you could un-invent something, what would it be?” was presented, I had a bunch of options run through my head. Did I wish for social media to disappear? Could bombs not been invented? Maybe I wished for AI to vanish? But as I was driving to work, a different thought crossed my mind. I wish the push for college education had never been invented. 

Now I can hear people saying that colleges have been around for hundreds of years. But I am not talking about being rid of higher education. I am talking about the propaganda that college is the only option for a successful future. I’m pretty sure my generation is a prime example of what can go wrong in a short amount of time if we rid ourselves of trades. We have a world filled with consumers and hardly any people who know how to produce. People complain about how hard it is to find someone to fix their AC or plumbing. Well yeah, we were told growing up that those jobs were beneath us. That no one of value should want to work with their hands. But now we’re seeing how untrue that logic is. 

There’s a social media trend discussing how millennials are skipping the midlife crisis phase and jumping right onto “grandparent hobbies.” I mean, do you blame us? We burnt out. We didn’t spend our lives outside like wild men like our parents did. Our parents kept a watchful eye on us because they had the chance to be free. They wanted us to experience opportunities they never had, and the advancement of technology pushed us in that direction. We were the generation of kids who took AP classes and dual enrollment classes, so we had a head start on college. Millennials don’t need to have a midlife crisis. Most of us had one during college or our twenties, as the world fell to shit for the third time. 

Now I look at my gen-z students and see how that process has amplified. Some of the most creative kids are being told they are failures because they don’t test well. However, I am proud of my school because we have a construction and automotive academy. These are amazing opportunities for our students to work with their hands. Also, my program of TV production is another outlet for students to challenge themselves outside of core classes. Within these programs, we are pushing students to earn their certification for the software or skills they have learned. Certifications are being more sought by employers over college degrees. We are giving students the opportunity to obtain them without the high cost they would have to pay if they were an adult trying to earn them. 

The shift in employers’ expectations is giving me hope for the younger generation. May now they will branch out into other professions without the stigma my generation faced. It would be nice to see blue-collar jobs appreciated for their worth. Because if we don’t have HVAC technicians, plumbers, mechanics of any kind, our world will fall apart. We need to encourage students to get out there and get dirty. Not everyone is meant to sit in an office all day. Not everyone is meant to write a twenty-page paper on the meaning of the color red in a film. Some people are meant to build homes, have grease under their fingernails, and make sure the world can still run. We need those people.