November 8, 2009, 01:00 PM ET

Why College Professors Don't Envy the Young

One of the great thing about being a college professor is that you don't envy the young.

While friends in other professions are waking up to their midlives (or what we choose to call midlife but how many people do you know who live past 100 -- not counting Lévi-Strauss?) and frantically wishing they could return to their twenties or thirties, those of us who have been dealing with undergraduate and graduate students don't want to time-travel back to those years.

Don't get me wrong: Sure, there are afternoons during my twentieth year I wouldn't mind revisiting on a regular basis (Tuesday afternoons in October, to be more precise). And yes, there are advantages simply assumed by some of my students (a wide range of role models, a culture which at least attempts to recognize diversity as a strength, advances in technology, science, birth control, and the replacement of Tab by Diet Coke) that might have made my life easier.

Trust me, I wouldn't mind being able to pull all-nighters and still feel bright and lively the next morning (as opposed to having to sleep for three days to make up for making one stupid deadline).

But to have to accept the whole thing as a package deal? Are you nuts?

To be adorable and energetic would be great, but to feel that perpetual trepidation that I'll never find a job, a partner, a place in the world, or an apartment that I don't have to share with six other people? No deal. To feel as if the whole world is open to me would be lovely, but to live with the anxiety that I'll end up on the outskirts or end up an outcast? No thanks. To wonder whether I'll ever do work meaningful to me, let alone anyone else? Not a chance.

Not to know (as my wonderful student from the class of '99 wrote, more or less, in the last post) what professions to profess or what lovers to love -- not to know whether you can trust your internal compass to lead to you home, or indicate your own, personal true north? Not even for spellcheck.

By the time you're in your fifties and sixties, you might still wrestle with these demons, but at least they are familiar.

Here's another almost-secret: When my students, current and former, announce their successes, it is also a gift to celebrate with them wholeheartedly. It's easier than it was when I was 30 because there's a more clear definition between us: It's their time to get their first piece of writing in print, to get their first MLA interviews, to publish their first books. In part because we are of different generations, I'm now able to say "Hooray for you" without some sneaky part of me thinking, "I wish it were me!"

Not that everything is daisies and champagne after menopause: each age comes with its own baggage. Now I worry about things that would horrify the 20- and 30-year-olds.

And fair enough.

OK, so now I worry about whether the work I've done will have any lasting value, whether the colleagues I've made will still remain friends after they (or I) retire, whether the profession itself will be able to offer the most talented and diligent of the students I've encountered in my classrooms and office a chance to show themselves at their best.

These things don't make me wish I were 30 because I know too well that 30-year-olds are actually thinking. They are thinking "OH MY ACHING GOD I AM 30 AND WHAT I AM DOING WITH MY LIFE?" At least when you're 50, you know what you're doing with your life, even if you don't like it.

I think about the fact that my students and I no longer listen to same music or revere the same actors; I wonder about the implications of the fact that even some of the smart ones like I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.

But that stuff I'm not worried about, not any more, and I'm all the happier for it. I trust that they'll tell me what I need to know (for example, about Shakira and "SheWolf") in order to remain up-to-date. In return, I'll teach them what they need to know about what happened before this date -- at least in some literature and at least from my perspective.

If I wouldn't want to be their age again, I also wouldn't trade the privilege of being around them.

They remind me that youth's a stuff will not endure.

But if you did it right, once was enough.

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Comments

1. oakwidge - November 09, 2009 at 08:55 am

brilliant - heartfelt and most importantly - genuinely "on the money"

2. tom_washingtondc - November 09, 2009 at 11:54 am

The above captures some heartfelt points and kind acknowlegement of differences among generations. However, there are a lot of selfish booomers in the world who are hateful and competitive toward young people. They are constantly comparing themselves against young people half their age. These selfish boomers also try to keep young people down and deprived and out of good jobs. They do not genuinely want them to succeed and are resentful of their success. Young people's existence is a problem in itself. The fact that they came to age and have material objects and opportunities that others before them did not have is grounds for begrudging them. I wanted to make people aware of this so that you can correct slights and digs made on a whim by selfish boomers against young people. After all, you were once young too.

3. menubia - November 09, 2009 at 12:37 pm

Great article. Dr. Barreca. As someone transitioning from almost 20 years in educational administration to faculty teaching, I find that some of my professors are not much older than me (I'm 40). So where will I be in 25 years? Well...I'll be 65 and hopefully happy with my decisions. If not, I can only learn and move forward in a better direction. I would also not want to go back 20 years to my 20s. Much of the same anxieties outlined above were a reality in my life. They were uncertain and uncomfortable times. At least now I have a home that I only share with my partner and two toddler-aged children. I have a reliable car. And fortunately I have two distinct careers from which to base any job search. That is a WHOLE LOT more than I had when I was 20.

4. boredwithacademia - November 09, 2009 at 03:12 pm

That's funny, Gina, I'm a 31 year old professor five years out from Ph.D. and wondering exactly what I am doing with my life!!

5. sstrada - November 09, 2009 at 05:39 pm

I still prefer Tab over Diet Coke. It is, however, harder to find.

6. cunningham2 - November 09, 2009 at 06:46 pm

Amen, sister!

But as to 'selfish boomers' wanting to hold the young'uns down, there has always been a percentage of the older generation who resent and envy the young rather than nurturing them. That wasn't invented by those born between 1946 and 1960, or whenever are the accepted boundaries of boomerdom.

7. lpdedd - November 10, 2009 at 08:54 am

The last two lines of your piece are philosphical and so simple, so comforting. Keep on writing and making me (all readers)think. LPD

8. mr_molesworth - November 12, 2009 at 10:00 am

Like you, I always thought that "Backward o backward, turn time in your flight and make me a youth again, just for tonight" was just so much poetic drivel. Now I think there may be something to it with the onset of global aging when predictions are that more than half of the children now born will live to be 100! I'm not sure that I would wish that on so many people and I'm glad that, unless there is a miracle and I survive to 175, I would live to see the day. Society should be paying as much attention to global aging as it does to global warming that, after all, seems to have a longer time frame. My first recommendation would be to create a situation in which those who live to 100 could like back with pleasure on "being a youth again, just for tonight" while creating an environment that people, even those with cushy jobs like college professors, wouldn't have to, or be allowed to, work for 75 years or more. I'd do so by not enrolling children in kindergarten until they were at least 10 years old and start college eduction when they reach 22. The average PhD would then be received at the ripe old age of 30 plus and those who wanted to teach 50 years could retire at 80 and have at least twenty years of a golden second childhood.

9. memitchell - November 12, 2009 at 10:32 am

Oh, I wish I could wholeheartedly agree! The key, I suppose, is being convinced that you DID do it right the first time. Alas, I am not so sure. I'd go back to college. Which isn't to say that I'm unhappy, just a little...wistful. (And this doesn't make me resent my students--far from it.)

10. rhiannon17 - November 13, 2009 at 02:49 pm

Excellent and thought-provoking article! I'm 37 and I sometimes become "wistful" for my 20s... But then, I realize that I am happy, secure and exactly where I want to be in life RIGHT NOW... Memories are great, but here and now is where I want to be! Great column, Gina! ; ) ~Nina

11. eelehman - November 17, 2009 at 02:22 pm

As a woman in her 20s, I love this article. I love to learn about the experiences of women at any and all stages of live, and I truely believe that there is beauty in each stage. I look forward to the "feeling better in my own skin" that comes after the 20s. Thank you for your wisdom and your humor in all of your writings!