“Hustle Hard, Retire Never: My Grandparents Bought Their House With A Grape and I Can’t Even Afford Avocado Toast”

Picture this: the distant melody of a Jimmy Buffet tune blending with the clinking of glasses in a cozy Tiki bar nestled in their snowbird oasis…let’s just call it, Naples. Here, a lively group of 60 and 70-somethings savor their Mai Tais and Tom Collins', soaking up the sun, doing that awkward shuffle dance thing they do–without a care in the world. A lifetime of hard work promised by a round of golf and a book club. 

But amidst their blissful sway to the island tunes, they seem blissfully unaware of the envy their contemporary counterparts may feel, knowing they may never experience such carefree golden years. An era dancing to their own beat–oblivious to the ripples they created for those who follow. 

They are the ‘fruit of the boom’, while the rest of us are left wondering if our retirement plan will be a “room” with a view…of the office.

It’s a deeply uncomfortable reality us Zillennials, Gen Z’rs and beyond are currently grappling with. What success or even “getting through it” looked like 10-20 years ago seems almost reverse dystopian. While an older generation wax poetic about walking uphill both ways to school and landing their first job with nothing more than a firm handshake and a can-do attitude, we find ourselves drowning in a sea of student debt and entry-level positions that demand a decade of experience before we even finish college. 

In this topsy-turvy world where even the most mundane tasks require a degree in rocket science and a proficiency in ancient Sumerian, the very concept of saving, contributing to beachside bingo (aka retirement), or even living within our means seems hard (if not, near impossible). Oh, the stories we shall regale our own grandchildren with: “...back in my day, I survived the Great Toilet Paper Famine of 2020, the end of Netflix family sharing, and I was never able to buy that house…but don’t you think this cardboard box has character, kids!?...”

Now, our generation is not entirely unreasonable. Not entirely ignorant. Yes, older generations struggled. At one point they have experienced what feels like standing on the precipice of global extinction, or never getting the chance to see their white picket fence dreams realized, or bearing witness to a world changing too fast than they can keep up with. 

Those relatable struggles have existed long before our generation was defined by our penchant for an avocado toast allowance. If anything can be said about the gaps we see in their life and ours, it appears as if we inherited the gray area between their mistrials and triumphs. Simply put: our generation is uniquely defined by comparison to the nth degree. 

So, where does that leave us exactly? Naturally, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and go scorched earth at our circumstances. But amidst the chaos, perhaps there lies an opportunity—a chance to redefine success on our own terms, and to wholly accept the generation of vanguards we’ve become.

If we are meant to be a generation who had to become resourceful, had to become resilient, had to break the mold in order to find something close enough to happiness (but maybe not quite as luxurious as a pretty pension looks right now), then let it be our passions we were forced to nurture vigorously in the absence of wealth, or our power to see past the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, or our indomitable spirit to trust that “everything’s going to be okay,” just because the sun came out. 

In the end, it’s not about our titles or the size of our bank accounts, but our fearless pursuit of something that’s become a little more complicated these days…a good life.