Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle class people and strivers are soooo boring because EVERY decision is about money. (I’m not saying that money isn’t important, but there’s no need to fixate on it; life is more colorful than money alone.) Consequently, they are not fun, witty, interesting, informative, or even friendly. Instead, they are highly practical, uptight, judgmental, and narrow-minded. If a kid can’t kayak at 22, when should he? According to the dopes on this thread: never.

Strivers? Please, you are being incredibly classist and elitist here.

And he can kayak on the weekends while he works a 9 to 5 or is in grad school.

Seriously, do you really think that most of the people who never had an extended adolescence kayaking in their twenties are “practical, uptight, judgmental, and narrow-minded?” You are clearly the judgmental one here.

As long as he’s paying his own bills and taxes I don’t think taking an unusual job counts as an extended adolescence. Weird that you think office jobs are the only valid career path. Maybe he’ll decide to launch his own kayak related business in a few years. Maybe he will decide office work provides more stability and decide it’s better to kayak on weekends after all. Maybe he’ll pivot into something totally different. But it sounds like he’s found a job that suits him for now and that seems to me a fair adult choice — much better than having family support while he finds an “appropriate” job in this crap economy.

Yes, taking a job kayaking instead of going to grad school or getting a career job (which isn’t that hard with an HYPS degree in Math) is indeed extending your adolescence. It’s not like being an adult at all.

This was actually a plot point on the Cosby Show. Oldest daughter Sonya and her husband Elvin, both Princeton grads, open up a camping store. Cliff was apoplectic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For fun and because they are not super career-focused. I know a few former elite college grads who became ski bums, rafting guides, or fishing guides immediately after college for a year or two - they were generally upper class kids who had it made.

But that’s the thing — this kid is not upper class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For fun and because they are not super career-focused. I know a few former elite college grads who became ski bums, rafting guides, or fishing guides immediately after college for a year or two - they were generally upper class kids who had it made.

But that’s the thing — this kid is not upper class.

Looks like he doesn’t have many loans so why not relax a little?

Anonymous wrote:Why do highly credentialed HYPS grads accept crap jobs after graduation?

My neighbor’s son is a senior at a HYPS right now, and she told me that her son just accepted a job offer after graduation. When I asked her what the job is, she told me that her son is moving to Oregon to be a full-time whitewater kayaking instructor.

I was bewildered by this. With a math degree from HYPS, I would assume he’d get a great job offer at graduation.

Oh and for the record, it’s not like he is a rich kid who can rely on his parents — he is solidly middle class and went to his college on a good amount of financial aid.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of middle class kids at state school or regional privates take a year or two off, working entry level jobs or doing something fun like going abroad as an au pair or working at state parks. At least this kid doesn't have any debt and has the HYP degree to back him up. This is why kids are so stressed; even the ones who get into Ivies have to fulfill further expectations like getting the right high-paying at the right time or be considered failures. Let the kid live a little.
- someone who grew up working class, took some less fun gap years in retail, and would 100 percent encourage my middle class kids to pursue something like this

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of middle class kids at state school or regional privates take a year or two off, working entry level jobs or doing something fun like going abroad as an au pair or working at state parks. At least this kid doesn't have any debt and has the HYP degree to back him up. This is why kids are so stressed; even the ones who get into Ivies have to fulfill further expectations like getting the right high-paying at the right time or be considered failures. Let the kid live a little.
- someone who grew up working class, took some less fun gap years in retail, and would 100 percent encourage my middle class kids to pursue something like this

OP here. The only people I know who have taken “fun” gap years like you’ve described are the children of the wealthy (except for this kid).

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who did this. HYSP, rigorous STEM degree, middle class, after summer went to work for similar kind of job. Twenty years later, owns one of the most successful and well-regarded companies in the field, highly profitable, works about half the year doing outdoor stuff he loves and has a markedly better quality of life than all his grinder classmates who went to law school.

He will be fine OP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For fun and because they are not super career-focused. I know a few former elite college grads who became ski bums, rafting guides, or fishing guides immediately after college for a year or two - they were generally upper class kids who had it made.

But that’s the thing — this kid is not upper class.

Looks like he doesn’t have many loans so why not relax a little?

Because he is middle class, so he needs to save up for a downpayment and retirement ASAP.

Look, just admit that you’re wealthy and that you’ll never get it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle class people and strivers are soooo boring because EVERY decision is about money. (I’m not saying that money isn’t important, but there’s no need to fixate on it; life is more colorful than money alone.) Consequently, they are not fun, witty, interesting, informative, or even friendly. Instead, they are highly practical, uptight, judgmental, and narrow-minded. If a kid can’t kayak at 22, when should he? According to the dopes on this thread: never.

Strivers? Please, you are being incredibly classist and elitist here.

And he can kayak on the weekends while he works a 9 to 5 or is in grad school.

Seriously, do you really think that most of the people who never had an extended adolescence kayaking in their twenties are “practical, uptight, judgmental, and narrow-minded?” You are clearly the judgmental one here.

A true “9-5” out of college really will be a crap job. All the well-regarded jobs out of college are absolutely brutal. Very smart to take a breather before jumping into one of those.

Not tech!

Yes also tech. Especially now that “warehousing” fake jobs have all been eliminated.