A question on my mind recently was what does it mean to be a young professional?
I decided to use the main tool of my generation to get the answer, the holy Internet. Through a search with the ultimate source of wisdom, Wikipedia, I was given a quasi-answer as usual.
It brought up the history of yuppies or young (urban) professionals prevalent during the 1980s which doesn't help me much. In the 1980s, my ultimate source of wisdom was Sesame Street.
The Internet had failed me (again) in helping to define my generation of X, Y or whichever alphabet letter we may labeled. What I do know is my generation of young professionals is diverse and labels are not always accurate for anyone.
Young professionals today aren't yuppies in a Mercedes zipping around in high heel shoes or Armani suits burning $100 bills to light their cigars-- unless we come from money, but I don't see making big money as our ultimate goal.
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No, we're hurdling through this World Wide Web at the break-neck speed of text messaging, using our wits and trading in the candy-coated past for a high-definition future.
Technology is a big part of our world now and continues to help us grow up and see what's going on beyond our cubicle walls, but it's not everything.
Yet, we're not so different from our parents, whether we want to believe that or not. Like them, we're looking for answers to the same questions, who are we and what are we doing? I wonder how they found the answers, perhaps using the dewy decimal system or more aptly on the streets of experience.
When I heard about a group forming in the area called the Dickinson Young Professional Network I thought of progress and what it all means.
I've asked group members to try and define what it is to be a young professional, but like me, they didn't have a definite answer.
The closest to an answer was defining a young professional as someone who wants to improve themselves in a profession, or who has career goals or aspirations. We argued over whether a young professional is a certain age, has a certain job skill or set, makes a certain salary, but nothing is certain.
I think diversity is a benefit to the Dickinson YP network because it embraces the generations of today and tomorrow.
I don't think any of us can fully define what it is to be a young professional, can you?
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I wasn't sure at first what a group of people around my age were going to do as a young professional network.
I had selfish reasons for joining, which include learning about others like me in the area, learning about the community I live and work in and getting involved in it more.
I'm sure for others who are part of the Dickinson YP network they have their own reasons similar or different to mine.
It's hard to see myself as a young professional because it's a new way of life after the institutionalism of school.
For me, writing as a profession was something I was doomed to do even from a young age. I always liked to tell or write stories. I often drove my mother Bonnie crazy with my favorite game of what-if.
Being a professional writer/reporter was not something the classroom or the Internet could teach me. I knew technology and school could only take me to a certain point and the rest of it is up to me.
What I do know is my experiences in life are what help define who I am, what I want to do and how I want to do it. Often deciding those things are difficult and quite a bit is learned through trial and error. I'm sure previous generations could have told me that, even the yuppies.
