Gen X

Nurturing the Gen Xer Who Resides Within

By Janet Eastman

ALTHOUGH it may read like a mawkish tabloid headline, I want to believe it's true: "I'm a Generation Xer Trapped in a Baby Boomer's Body."

At 37, I'm technically part of the tsunami of 78 million kids born between 1946 and 1964, but philosophically, I want to align myself with the generation that followed.

Why?

Because Generation Xers are into self-gratification while boomers are resigned to stealth gratification.

Boomers like me scrimp for years to take a long vacation that we hope will reunite us with our loved ones whom we've tossed aside to reap the rewards of corporate servitude, while Gen Xers, like my die-hard, 26-year-old friend Rose, go on nine-week honeymoons to Spain, because, she reasons, "It's fun."

Credit-card woes? I haven't paid a finance charge on one of those little payroll-eaters in years--well, not since my 20s--but I fear I may get sick one day and have to depend on them for essentials like food and medicine, not frivolities like world travel. Gen Xers use credit cards as if they're a God-given extension of their fingers. And they look at them differently than I do: They aren't racking up debt, they're racking up experiences. Ah! That explains why it's called Visa.

It comes down to this: Gen Xers are having their dessert while boomers are still at the entree stage of life.

Do I resent them for adopting this "why pay dues?" philosophy?

Absolutely not. I agree with them. Boomers are materialistic control freaks who put work before pleasure.

And for that reason, I'm seeking a divorce from my generation.

Now some narrow-minded, pencil-pushing boomers may say that's impossible. You're born when you're born and that's it. But I think Gen Xers will let me in; they are a most forgiving group (remember, they met us when all boomers looked like "The Brady Bunch" and they don't seem to smirk much about it behind our backs).

You may wonder what caused me to have the revelation that I don't want to lead the boomer life anymore. After a 12-year hiatus, I returned to college to get a master's in English and I found myself surrounded by card-carrying adults who were much younger than I was.

What first caught my attention about the differences between them and me were the tools they brought to class. In front of me was a platoon of pencils and note pads; in front of them was an army of Snickers, M & Ms and Skittles. In seconds, they would consume 98 grams of fat without an ounce of guilt. I admire that in people.

After further study, I discovered other appealing Gen X attributes:

* They can still live at home. I have trouble surviving Thanksgiving dinner.

* They are techno-literate. I'm frustrated that every time I think I'm changing the channel on my TV, I'm unwittingly reprogramming it to speak a language that I do not understand.

* They are able to process lots of information at once. I have to turn down the car radio to concentrate on making a lane change.

Gen Xers buy sensible clothing like jeans at places called anti-malls, with post-WWII Berlin-inspired decor and froufrou-free facades. I once visited the deconstructed Lab in Costa Mesa and fought back the urge to upright the windows. Then I drove across the street to South Coast Plaza, the epicenter of the material world, and dropped a bundle on a white Anne Klein silk pantsuit that made me look like John Lennon on the "Abbey Road" album. It was not the look I was after.

The younger generation is not hung up on appearance. One goateed guy told me: "I have a degree. I'm qualified. Why do I have to take my nose ring out to land a job?" He's asking me, Ms. Conformist, the original devotee of John T. Malloy's Dress for Success or Die a Loser doctrine? But that's in my past generational life.

Today, I say, "Let that hook dangle below your nostril. And do you like my latest tattoo?"

These guys don't ask themselves, "What do I want to be?" Instead, they ask: "Where do I want to be?" Is it possible to find work traveling to Lollapalooza concerts? It sure beats being trapped inside the concrete bunkers boomers are barricaded in day after day.

Gen Xers want to have fun while they're young, and most surprisingly, they think there's nothing wrong with that. I want to believe that it's OK to be carefree and capricious, but whenever I dream about spending a year in Kenya, it becomes, in reality, 40 minutes spent in front of the Imax screen to watch "Africa: The Serengeti."

In short, Gen Xers are living the boomer idea of retirement while they're still filling out short forms. It's time I cashed in on my deferred gratification policy and joined them.

Please release me, fellow boomers. Let me run free with these realistic optimists who say, "There's comfort in knowing there's a lack of security," and then not falling to the ground and wondering where it all went wrong.