Yesterday, I was looking at decals to add to my schedule. For non-Cal people, decals are 1-2 unit student-led classes on anything. This year, we have James Bond: Politics and Pop Culture, Quantum Consciousness: The Large, the Small & the Human Mind, and Whiskey: History and Culture, to name a few. Whenever I look at the list of courses I have to consciously tell myself to only take what I can apply to my major or a future career. So instead of taking Learn to Play the Sather Tower Bells, I am taking Berkeley Fiction Review: Small Press Publishing. It's not that I don't want to take this class, but there are decals that are much more interesting to me right now. However, interesting and important are not synonymous.
This isn't the first time I've stumbled into this conundrum. As an English major, the first question people ask me is "So what are you going to do with your degree?" I'll be honest, it's a fair question. The obvious answers are teaching or law school. The subvert answer is waitress. But why is this answer not ok? Why is it stigmatized?
Perhaps it's because after a person pays thousands of dollars for a degree, they don't want to get the same job they could have had in conjunction to those thousands of dollars. Understandable. But that should make the issue an individual one, not a socially frowned upon one.
Then again, maybe it's because these jobs (waitress, retail, barista) don't pay as much as people assume a college graduate should make. But that raises the question of, well, how much should college graduates make? How much should an individual with, oftentimes, little work experience earn? In my opinion, it's not nearly as much as college grads think they should. These jobs are oftentimes fantastic. Some of my best work experiences were at Starbucks. A lot of people want jobs that are challenging, creative, and make a difference. Starbucks baristas have all of that. Clearly, it's not the job itself, it's the money.
So why should society care if I don't make as much money as Mr. Engineering Major? I think it stems from the American Dream. The story that "grandpa came to America with $2.00 in his pocket" is known to many American families. America is a mutt, so it makes sense that everyone has their own version of "Back in the day..." Obviously, that generation had qualities that this Occupy generation doesn't understand--determination, diligence, patience. All of those things are fantastic, it's what made America. But, what is the backlash of that mentality? This current generation is having such an issue with inequality because it is no longer ok to be anything less than a millionaire. As an English major, I've gotten my fair share of "English? Oh so you're going to work at McDonalds?" So what? McDonalds offers healthcare, dental, vision, and life insurance among other fantastic benefits. Simply because great-great-grandpa Thomas earned thousands in his day, doesn't mean I have to earn millions. It's no wonder the middle class is disappearing when middle class jobs are so scorned. Now, I'm not saying this is the entirety of this generation's issues, but I think it is a relevant. This generation has been pushed so far forward that we can't even think about filling in the gaps behind us. The American Dream has backfired because dreams aren't made of spatulas and aprons.
Final anecdote to make my point...a friend of a friend was recently protesting at the Occupy Seattle camp. She had been laid off for months and was living on food stamps. That day, the secretary of a near-by company quit, so the VP walked to the camp and told everyone who had their resume and wanted a job to line up. Along with a handful of others, she lined up and upon giving the VP her resume was offered the secretary job. She asked for 24 hours to think about it. This woman who was living on food stamps and Occupy freebies had to think about it because the salary wasn't high enough for her. Ultimately, she took the job.
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