Originally published: November 18, 2011 6:28 PM
Updated: November 18, 2011 8:05 PM
By PATRICK KEEFFE
Article from Newsday
My 22-year-old son and I dash from the parking lot to the ticket machines at Huntington Station. We find seats on the 7:12 to Penn Station. I have been doing this since 1983. This is Justin's first day as a commuter.
Eighteen months after graduation, he finally found work in this scary, very difficult economy. Justin works part time for a start-up that's developing a curriculum-related application for the iPad, a job that uses his skills -- research, writing and editing. He's thrilled and so are his mother and I.
After a career in newspaper and magazine journalism, then in communications for two New York City cultural institutions, I'm now a consultant. A long-term project for one of my major New York clients has me riding the rails once again, now three days a week. I was glad my son and I could commute together. It feels like handing the relay baton to the next runner, or in our case the next generation.
When my generation graduated from college in the 1970s, we found jobs with little trouble. And, if you didn't like a job, you found another. Before the world became a global village with one planet-sized business district, America always bounced back from recessions. Our economic might was unparalleled and, seemingly, invincible. Not anymore. Today, our children are graduating into a very different world. One that cannot employ thousands of them.
The once-dependable American equation of college plus hard work equals success no longer applies. The math has changed. The current equation -- one wonders if it is temporary -- seems to be to enter into breathtaking debt, study hard and graduate.
Then pray that laid-off, middle-aged executives have not snapped up all of the jobs at Starbucks or Home Depot.
Some of our twin sons' Long Island friends have readily marketable professions -- teaching, accounting and engineering -- and they cannot find work. Justin and his twin, Nicholas, were liberal arts majors, not much safer these days than being an English major.
But they have first-rate minds, critical thinking and writing skills and deep computer literacy. They studied hard, were honor students and had useful internships. Now, thankfully, both are employed. Though not, as my sister says of her own 20-something kids, "off the family payroll."
The train pulls into Penn Station and we walk to the main concourse. I recall another Monday morning, 17 years earlier. In a snapshot my wife took, our boys, shouldering little backpacks, waited for the bus in front of our house. It was the first day of first grade.
Before we leave Penn in different directions, I give Justin a hug, wish him luck and watch as he disappears into the swirling chaos. For him, this is a different kind of first day in a new century. For a moment, I think about him on day one of his career. He lived in New York City as a university student and knows his way around. He has a sense of humor and a generous heart. He'll be fine.
But this is not the same prosperous, optimistic nation that his parents entered as new graduates at 22. These days, work, even part time without benefits, has become a hard-to-reach goal. This uncertain time, at least for now, comes with short-term, downsized hopes. You might call it American Dream 2.0.
Reader Patrick Keeffe lives in Huntington.