Teenagers today are young, reckless and ready to be successful. While these character traits don’t really seem to mesh well, somehow the youth of today makes it happen. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “65.9 percent of high school graduates in 2013 were enrolled in colleges or universities,” which means more than half of the kids who graduate high school end up going to college. College means an education, but it also means partying.
Your grandparents most likely tied the knot early in their twenties, and that strange fact of life most likely puzzles 90 percent of millennials. While 20-somethings back in the day had full-blown families by the ripe age of 22, 22-year-olds in college now spend every weekend binge drinking and acting reckless. College is an extended adolescence, and college kids today party their weekends (and week nights) away consistently. These same party animals, however, yearn to be successful in the real world and would do anything to make the big bucks once they graduate.
So what cultural mark will millennials today make on their generation? Partying. According to the National Institute of Health, “about four out of five college students drink alcohol, and about half of college students who drink, also consume alcohol through binge drinking.” This means about 80 percent of college students drink, and if 60 percent of high school graduates go to college, then that’s a huge chunk of today’s youth wasting away days doing meaningless, irresponsible activities. These are the future business leaders of America, and they seem to live by a work hard, play hard philosophy. The 1960’s is long gone, and with it the days of housewives and education-less women has gone too.
College is necessary in order to be successful, but college also means subjecting one’s self to four or more years of an extended youth in which alcohol, drugs and a life based off weekend drinking plans rules all. Millennials are ready for the “real world” after college, when in reality they’re already living in the real world just making reckless and irresponsible decisions.
Image: Via Flickr/Elizabeth Hahn
