Generation Better
By Jenn Zipp
The Better Blog was an idea. That’s all it was. Just one of those passing things you get while sitting on the bus on your way to work, an idea that’s sandwiched between “I fucking forgot to feed the cat” and “I wonder if my hair’s gone flat by now.” And then over coffee, you mention it to a friend. They tell you what a good idea it is and then proceed with their story about how they got laid last Saturday night, etc. etc.
We’ve been tagged as Generation Q by The New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, when really, the more and more I talk to my peers, what we really should be called is Generation: Better. Not because of our egos, not because of any standing we have in comparison to the Baby Boomers, the Xers or the upcoming Generation Multi-taskers. But because what we’re looking for is something … better. There’s this omnipresence of holding out for something greater to come along and… none of us really know what that is.
So we live our lives, we hold out, we hope… we fucking hope… that whatever greatness we’re destined for will fall in our laps. We work hard at menial jobs that don’t really spotlight our talents, but we do what we do to get by with this ache within, knowing that we’re so much better than the name tag on our shirt, the measly paycheck with our names on it, the mundane lives we lead.
Underneath it all, we know that we’re better.
And this blog won’t change your life. It won’t make things all better. It’s just a chronicle of the lives of others that are in the same boat, a little reminder that we’re all in this together.
The Better Blog was an idea. But now it’s something real because of the writers that jumped on the bandwagon. So I thank the contributors. I thank the graphic designer. I thank whoever may stumble upon this page and take a few minutes of their day to peruse what’s here. From here on out, things can only get better.
Jenn Zipp
Editor