Occupy Wall Street, New York, by _PaulS_ via Flickr with Creative Commons

When I first began blogging about Generation X it was July 2008, two months before the financial meltdown that would drastically impact lives from Greece to Greeley. But, it was at least a year before it all began sinking in, and maybe not even then.

In the months following September 2008, articles still appeared about the love fest between Baby Boomers and Generation Y. These essays and news stories outlined the hope and promise of Gen Y. They were the Boomers' protégés, their little darlings. They were so brilliant and so preferred over Gen Xers they would leap-frog us right into the corner office.
  
Playing By The Rules
On the same token, there were articles and white papers every week about the blind optimism and unrealistic expectations of Generation Y; articles that criticized them for wanting to advance beyond their experience and the stripes they had not yet earned. Gen Xers sat around asking themselves how Boomers could give away their promotions and how could Gen Y vie for them to begin with? Nobody was playing by the rules, Gen Xers whined.

Except, I never believed any of it, which I basically said in a post in July 2010, The Boomer-Gen Y Love Affair and a Tough Prayer for Gen X to Pray.  The reason is because what I saw unfolding before my eyes was a Generation Y career trajectory that was far worse and less promising than that of Generation X. And, eventually, all those articles disappeared. And, what I often wrote about Generation X men - how they made less than their fathers when calculating for inflation - was a problem we were going to pass down to the next generation; a problem nobody much talked about and did little to resolve.

Gen Y Has It Worse
In Ted Rall's October 3, syndicated column Oh To Be Young And In Hate he writes about the challenges Generation X faced after college including underemployment and massive student loan debt. Then he says what I've been thinking for three years: Generation Y has it significantly worse than Generation X did. Only someone with a spiritual malady would not find this heart breaking.

Generation Y and the youngest of Gen Xers are the backbone of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Gen Y skews more liberal while Gen X skews more conservative, but at the end of the day they all stare up at the ceiling (or the sky if they're camping out in protest) and worry about the same damn things.

Just As I Am
When I was a little girl growing up under my fathers' ministry, he used to close services with this simple chorus. I can still seem him in his light blue, waffle print suit, pointing up to the heavens:

I know the Lord will make a way for me. 
I know the Lord will make a way for me.
If I live a holy life
Shun the wrong and do the right
I know the Lord will make a way for me. 

God has cut many paths for me in life. Some involved painful detours inspired by transgressions. Sometimes they were mine, sometimes, not. Through it all He has made a way for me. And, I think it can be the same for anyone. The deeper the surrender, the richer the journey.