Monday, December 14, 2009

Keeping Up With The Jones

As you may know, I get a lot of my inspiration from my friends and people I associate with but I also am inspired by those I follow on Twitter.  Today, one of the young ladies I follow posted the tweet below:

@jdantv You have to remember that this is the first generation of blacks that may not do as well as their parents...

When I saw the first part of her comment, I thought about a conversation I had with a friend not too long ago about this very same topic.  It seems as if the children of middle-upper middle class families are not doing nearly as well as our parents.  Even though we have the education, in most cases, we have not reached the same level financially as our parents.

As I think about where my parents were at my age, they had been married for like 5 years, my Mother was pregnant with me, they had a nice home, both had a Masters degree and a law degree and were gainfully employed.  Growing up, I lived in a nice size house, my parents took international trips every year, drove nice cars, were members of certain organizations and they had all of the accoutrements that came along with being part of the upper-middle class.

Although, I try not to compare myself to my parents it's hard.  I know that I've accomplished a lot over the years and have a rewarding career, but I can't help but feel like I still have not made it.  I try to look at all of the positive things that I've done and relish in the fact that I am where I need to be.  I'm not trying to keep up with my parents or their friends.  I'm definitely not trying to keep up with the Jones or the Johnsons or the Witherspoons.  I'm just trying to be me.

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