Gen 'Eclectic'

He’s 27. He’s a mixologist at the latest nightspot. She’s 30. She’s a health blogger and a fitness enthusiast. Considering that the words ‘mixologist’ and ‘blogger’ had red dotted lines underneath them when I typed them out, it makes me think either the words are too new or my Microsoft office is not updated. Well I think the latter is more probable. This also makes me realize how much I love the new spectrum of career and opportunity. Leaving the doctor, lawyer, and engineer syndrome far back, there is a whole army of a generation walking away from the clichéd parental biases and the rigid education system (a teacher once told me I would suffer from an inferiority complex if I dropped science in the 9th grade) into the area of passion and endless possibility.

This ‘gen-next’ which is garnering more and more people in its realm is characterized by a dizzying mix of characteristics – a highly experimental bent of mind, driven by passion yet calculative and with an outlook to life where fear does not exist. Knowledge about what they can do well and confidence that they can take on practical issues without crumbling make up their attitude.

Yes, of course there are hurdles along the way and a whole lot of them, as nothing ‘forward’ is without its share of rebellion from the already established. Whether it’s the grounded parents and their views on ‘carrier’ or the small customized firms concentrated in the metros with such specific skill requirements or the nature of work where an income is far from ‘regular’. But then again, a mind without fear and the conviction to achieve come as mandatories to belong to this dynamic group.

As for me, every time I meet a spa manager or a coffee table book designer, a shoe painter, a gourmet foods home delivery company owner, a style editor… I’m transported to this world of viewing myself in different places doing things that make me get a head rush and leading a highly romanticized life, complete with all the adventure. But for now, I sit about on the fence and wonder about the what-can-be’s, juggling the sideways pull of the settled and the wanderers…the focused and the floaty. Somewhere in my heart, I wait for a moment to posses me and magically convert all my doubts into a fierce drive that would make me a part of this eclectic clan.