Give In or Give Out

Just a few weeks ago, the graduating class of 2026 moved their tassels to the side and threw their caps in the air, a la Legally Blonde, to celebrate one of life’s biggest achievements, one we’ve been taught to pursue ferociously since childhood: a college education, a degree, a paper. Except that by now, we have all heard about the 5.7% unemployment rate decimating the professional and economic outlook of the country’s recent graduates. As it appears, report after report, the promises of better career and economic prospects through the attainment of a college degree have deteriorated and, according to some, have or will practically vanish altogether. 

Many of us, myself included, have been desirous pursuants of higher education since childhood, and today are genuinely grateful to have obtained it for our own personal growth and satisfaction. Yet that achievement hasn’t always assuaged the lingering questions I suspect graduates in previous and current generations face. Were the sacrifices worth it or the betrayals to our detriment? Has giving out rather than giving in ever served us? 

Before we were even teens, much less of age, many of us were urged to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, or accountants, the professions that would guarantee us a stable and prosperous future, no question. Then, in more recent years, as technology began to emerge, rapidly dominate, and at this point reshape our societies, we have been told to pursue careers in the “secure fields” of today, paths in computer science and the like. And yet, we turn on our TVs or browse The New York Times, The Atlantic, or our newspaper or magazine of choice, only to discover that 6.1% to 7.8% of recent computer science graduates are unemployed, with 19% listed as underemployed. And as far as the popular secure careers of generations past, which continue to be promoted today, doctor, engineer, lawyer, and accountant, the unemployment rate, while not as high, is not encouraging, and the underemployment can be quite discouraging. As it turns out, these careers, while incredibly critical to building functioning and thriving societies, and certainly enjoyable and meaningful to many of the people accredited and experienced in them, also don’t appear to guarantee a stable and successful future. Maybe they never did, because nothing ever does, and still, generation after generation, we have traded the pure, the certain: the hopes and dreams of our childhoods, for a certainty that today, especially for this generation of recent graduates, seems less and less out of reach. 

In 2014,  Jim Carrey was giving a commencement speech to the graduating class at Maharishi University, when he said, “My father could’ve been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him, and so he made a conservative choice; instead, he got a safe job as an accountant, and when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job and our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

Interestingly,  just as the track of a secure career played in the background of our childhoods, so did the track of “Follow your passion.” At least they did for me. I still remember as a kid, unloading my entire closet onto my bed and arranging our dining table chairs to face one another in our living room. Guests watched on, amazed, or so I told myself, as I walked through with the latest fashions. I was six, and the guests were my mom, dad, grandma, and brother, who looked like he was being dragged through barbed wire. My dream then was to be a fashion designer. Every piece of paper I came across fueled that dream as I sketched the collections to grace the covers of Vogue, which I collected. That dream ultimately faded and then evaporated as I changed, “outgrew it,” or just surrendered to the pressure of pursuing a more stable career path, preferably one with health insurance and a 401K upon entrance. So, the “Follow your passion” track did play throughout my childhood; it just played through janky earphones that only my ears were truly privy to, whereas the “Secure career” track played in loud, high-resolution speakers. A sound system I tried as hard as I could to ignore, until I just couldn’t anymore, in more recent years, hearing voices like that of Scott Galloway, who I admire, come through it, saying, “Anyone who tells you to follow your passion is already rich, and the guy telling you to follow your passion made his billions in iron ore smelting.” 

Though I understand where Scott and others with a similar viewpoint stand, in this deeply unstable and uncertain world our generation has graduated into, the aforementioned lingering questions remain. Were the sacrifices worth it or the betrayals to our detriment? Has giving out rather than giving in ever served us? If one can be laid off, at the scale occurring today, as an accountant, engineer, or nurse, thankfully, at least doctors seem protected, was the sacrifice of trading the hopes and dreams of our childhood, of pursuing a career we genuinely enjoyed, for the promise of a more stable and secure future, worth it? Did betraying ourselves have the expected ROI? Has it ever? The truth is that, without fail, decade after decade, many of us have sacrificed our dreams and betrayed our souls and our gifts in exchange for a certainty that never was and never will be, especially not in this day and age.

While I, thankfully, along with others, pursued the major I wished to, it is quite easy to understand why many didn’t and still don’t. It is logical and in our nature to cling to safety, especially in times of unsafety and borderline desperation. Still, as we do this, the goalpost shifts, and we contort and stretch impossibly once again to reach, only to be left bereft of joy, life, and meaning. We give out our time, labor, and selves, but resist giving in to the dreams, gifts, and hopes within us. Yet, only by giving in to our hopes, gifts, and dreams can our selves, our labor, and our time become more than mere expenditure.