Young Adults: Emerging or Submerging?
There is a lot of chaos facing our young adults right now and many of them don’t know which way to turn. Years ago, young adults more naturally progressed into stable adult roles in love, education, and work by their late teens and early twenties. Their teenage years directly formed the structure of their adult lives. Now all that has definitely changed. We saw it coming over the last decade, and it has finally arrived. The late teens and early twenties has become a time of immense job instability; questioning of a college and graduate education; and postponement of commitment and marriage. The lack of self-identity continues to be hidden inside the immature, and confused young adult. Instead of the “age of exploring” one’s identity it has become the “age of instability.”
Most young adults are trying to decide what to do about college right now. College is no longer a place for safety and stability. Some students are choosing to stay at home and take online classes through a community college in order to reduce the risk of Covid-19 and also reduce expenses. Other students are attending college, but are spending most of their time in their rooms, not socializing with peers and not gaining the full college experience. Then of course some students are at college and socializing as if there wasn’t a pandemic going on, and subsequently are asked to leave school because they are not following protocol. Unfortunately, none of these young adults are getting the opportunity to learn life skills or gaining any sense of independence that normally happens during this life stage. How will these children gain the experience to figure out what they want to do with their lives?
Other young adults who are not academically inclined may not be college bound at all. These kids still need to gain experiential learning in order to attain some type of job. It is also critical for these young adults to develop the skills to take care of themselves and be independent adults. Another group of young adults have the academic ability to succeed in school, but they have a fear of flying due to either high anxiety or depression. They have a hard time leaving the comforts of home. These kids need an environment that can provide them with extra hand holding while they attend school.
The young adults that our office sees today start at age 18 up to the age of 35. We recognize they feel "in-between" and not quite the adult they wish they were. They express anxiety, depression, and fear that they will not make progress toward adulthood, losing hope that anything will change. This piece is the most painful to observe and feel from them as they talk about their missing hopes and dreams. So how to help change the trajectory of confusion, despair and general malaise?
There are a variety of options available now to young adults that can allow them to change their journey. Some non-therapeutic paths include: taking a year off and working domestically or overseas, attending a wilderness option which develops outdoor skills and therefore life skills, immersing in a language development program, giving back to an indigenous community. For more therapeutic support, there are independent living programs that allow young adults to live with peers and work in an internship at the same time or possibly take classes. All of these options provide structure and goals for the young adult and gives them extra time to learn life skills and a sense of what they want to do with their life.
Each young adult who reaches out is only limited by their lack of knowledge of what can be. The Aspire Group is here to make the match!