I think I’m probably as guilty as most (if not a little more so) of romanticizing a past that doesn’t always reflect historical reality. Urban farming, straight razors, penny farthings, dressing up to fly…OK. This post isn’t (just) about hipsters.

Promise.

We’ve seen what a couple generations of industrialization have done to our parents and grandparents and it ain’t pretty. What’s more, it’s left us with promises no one’s willing to fulfill. No, you’re probably not going to be able to work your way through college. At least not the way your parents did. It’s unlikely you’ll work for the same company for thirty years and retire, either. So it’s easy to start to see certain times gone by as being simpler. More honest.

And maybe they were.

But I think there are a lot of late twenty-somethings/early thirty-somethings like me who feel like maybe they realized the dream is over a little too late. That feel stuck in limbo. Wishing that their college degree was still a golden ticket, yet still wanting to be a part of the exciting new economy.

OK. Wallow for a minute. Let’s get our cry on and hug it out.

The reality is, life may have once been simpler, but it wasn’t any easier. And while we may have been sold some broken dreams, it’s not our obligation to hold onto them. In fact, the dreams I see now weren’t even a possibility only twenty years ago. And there’s no one else responsible for defining or achieving our success. We can pick ourselves!

For crying out loud, we don’t even need to wait for clients to pick us in order to start making a racket in the wedding industry! You can make, create, and ideate without anyone’s permission.

So tell me: how are you picking yourself?