Are you depressed? Do you look outside and find nothing inspiring or even remotely interesting? Do you find it hard to see anything good coming down the pike any time soon? Do you often feel as if you’ve made some horrible mistake with your life, and it’s too late to turn around and start over? Does reading an entire paragraph’s worth of questions get on your nerves?
As it turns out, you could be depressed. And while the holidays can be a time when those without loved ones nearby can get down in the dumps, this may not be why you’re feeling so bad. According to a recent survey, if you feel depressed and pessimistic when you think about the future, it could be because you’re a baby boomer.
Sure, everyone’s a little less optimistic in a down economy, but Boomers are the worst. Could you be a Baby Boomer and not know it?
No.
In fact, if you were not born between 1946 and 1964, odds are you are more excited about life in general, but that could just be because you’re not old enough to have pictures of you in bell bottoms surface on Facebook. According to a study by Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends, about 80% of Boomers don’t like how things are going in the U.S.
Hey, get in line, bub! But really, what’s wrong with our old people? Why are they so sad? Even my generation, Gen Y the Millenials, is more optimistic, and we’re the ones who graduated college only to enter the worst job market in 80 years.
Cheer up, Boomers, it’s not all that bad. Sure, you’re not as cool as you used to be, but guess what: you were never really that cool in the first place. Ask your kids.
You have so much going for you now. At this point you’ve seen some of your favorite bands from high school or college have their own biopics or re-form in recent years to tour and make some more money off of you. Not only that, but you have had solid decades of being able to use the “It was the 60s” excuse. Do you know how badly other generations wish they had that?
Yes, the economy’s not the best, so that nest egg you have isn’t really all that you thought it would end up being, but really, that’s what you get for being a liberal arts major and following the Grateful Dead for three years. You got to live rent-free at home for years after college because there was no housing available and you get plausible deniability for disco. Things are pretty good!
Haven’t you heard? Old is the new … well, old is still old, but it’s a lot cooler to be old than it was back when you were young. Just look at movies like It’s Complicated, Red, The Expendables or anything with George Clooney in it: there’s a chic about being old enough to remember black and white television. Just because some of the best members of your generation were so cool they died from drug overdoses, sandwiches or Mark David Chapman doesn’t mean the fun’s over for you guys.
Now, can I have some gas money?
What do you mean- post mid life crisis. It’s still mid- life. I have longevity in my family!