9.  The hopefulness of emerging adulthood:  All is still possible when nothing is decided

If one thing is surprising about emerging adults it is how optimistic they are.  Given all that is happening to them one would expect them to be dejected.  Instead they are uncommonly hopeful for their personal future.  They are generally upbeat, full of dreams and wide-open to change.  What might be the explanation for their elation?  Two answers can be given:

The first is that their optimism is premature and their confidence about the future unfounded.  It is easy to believe that everything is possible in the absence of experience with the real world, as is the case with emerging adults, so says one view.  This perspective on youthful optimism would predict that emerging adults are in for a rude awakening once they commit themselves to real life at age thirty.  Until then they are too young for their views and values to be given a serious hearing.

On the other hand, the emerging adults of today are the adults of tomorrow.  In less than two decades they will be the ones calling the shots so it might be wise to listen to what they have to say.  Today’s emerging adults are perhaps the first generation in history that is not beholden to a past and for whom the future is in every sense of the word a wide-open adventure.

They are like the immigrants who came as pioneers to a new land, lacking all knowledge of what demands the new conditions of life would make upon them.

They are like “unborn child[ren] already conceived but still in the womb.[i]

                                                                           

Each coming generation offers the world a chance for improvement and renewal.  Emerging adults are not only busy forming their identity, but in doing so they are also busy shaping the world of tomorrow.  And the fact that they take their time doing this also means that they are extra careful not to repeat the mistakes of previous generations.  Their willingness for a time to exchange the certainty of knowing for the integrity of questioning deserves a note of appreciation.

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[i] Margaret Mead, 1970 Culture and Commitment, a Study of the Generation Gap, p.72 and 88.  Garden City, N.Y: Natural History Press.