Would it kill us?

There has been so much talk lately of how horrible things are, how horrible they’ve been and how horrible they are going to get. And it sucks. It’s scary and a lot of people have lost their jobs and their homes and a good chunk of their retirement savings and it bites the big one. I get it.

But ever since I was a little girl watching “Little House on the Prairie” or listening to my grandma Lily explain her distaste for margarine, I have secretly envied the massive hardships suffered by other generations. Not because I am a glutton for punishment (I certainly HATE suffering) but because I wondered if my generation had actually been tried. And worried that if we were tried, we’d be found wanting. . .

Now I’m not so good with the numbers, but it seems that we’ve had market suckfests before and recovered. And I’m not going to try and get political and mention the word “bailout” or anything. I’m just saying, would the hardship kill us? I’m not sure that it would/will.

I feel that my generation is pretty scrappy, not because we’ve been through so much but because we’ve been given so much. When Jeremy and I first married I remember thinking that we were really lucky because we got to purchase a house for under 6%, while our parents told tales of 14-23% in their day. I was grateful that I had access to a safe and secure car with inexpensive gasoline, instead of the scary Pinto that gave off fumes (and eventually caught fire. . .)which my parents owned when I was an infant. The reasons go on. . .I learned how to work from home because of the technology available to me, the fabu “interwebs” that allowed me to “fax” (so I’m an edge millennial, sue me)or email my stories to editors while my babies were. . .babies. The idea that Nebraska, while near exile to my mother when we were stationed here 20 years ago, is now a central location where I can do everything (but catch a nonstop flight) I need to on the coasts.

So now, armed with my ROWE ethic and iMac and a super low mortgage, I am able to feel like I can take on some of what’s coming. I think that my generation will surprise a lot of people when we come through this scarred but okay. Having been tried and tested and found. . .worthy. Like so many generations before us.

Tomorrow I will post my top ten recommendations for what to do during this MESS:

Source