Sorry to keep you waiting...

Oh, the insanity of being a grad student is catching up with me!

Sorry for failing to post for a few days (weeks). I like to think of myself as a great blogger but...

The Future Belongs to the Future Itself

Look, it grinds my gears that the government is happy to let twenty-somebodies carry the weight of other groups. This year, my state cut millions of dollars in higher education funding. Tuition is skyrocketing and no one is taking notice.

But why should government officials care what we think? Last election, only 50% of eligible millennials voted. That was actually a high point for us. This is the reality: if we don't vote, write and call our officials, and pay attention to politics, no one will care about us. 

It's not hard. I worked in a Senate office, people dumber than you call their Senators every day. 

You want to know where the funding went for higher education?     Medicare. 

Old. People. Vote. 

Reality check, y'all... 

Don't you love when 80's music is sooo right?

Habit-Forming Behavior

This post is a departure from my typical subject areas, but I simply had to share.

It's that time of year when you have officially, completely forgotten your New Year's resolution. Yet, those sundresses and bikinis are really calling to you, aren't they? It's all getting too real.

Are you trying to get into the habit of working out or eating better? I have a really simple, cheap, and easy method for building a habit that is really working for me. So, psychologists tell us that it takes 21 days to build a habit. Right now, I am trying to be more consistent with my meditation practice.

I saw this on Pinterest, and it really appealed to me because it was simple, visual, and tactile. You take those little flag tabs and number them 1-21 and then stick them to a wall. Mine says “Did I meditate today?” and each tab says “yes!” and has a number. As I rip off the tabs, I put them in a jar.

Normally when creating something like this, I would give myself an out. For example, I would make the rule that if I skipped a day, I would add two days. With this, I never thought to have an out, and halfway through, I have realized that it was better that way. Some days, I only meditate for ten minutes, and some meditations are better than others. But I make it a point to do it every day because I don't have a choice. 

Not only is it very satisfying to add little tabs to my jar, but having the tabs on the wall right across from my bed has guaranteed that I never forget. I've tried to use apps and journals and calendars, but I always forget to remember.

If you have a habit that you want to build, I recommend trying this method. It's so easy and it's really worked for me!  

As twenty-somebodies, it is vital that we build healthy habits that will enrich the rest of our lives. Please let me know if this method works for you!

A Dose of Common Sense

Here is something I have discovered about advocacy: if you constantly bring up the issues you’re passionate about, someone will point you toward the organization that fits.

During my first week with the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), I met a man who pointed me toward Common Sense Action, an advocacy organization for millennials. Civic engagement and twenty-somebodies? Could you think of a better fit? 

This organization is working from the grassroots to expand millennial opportunity and interest in

politics. Advocacy is built on three tiers: generational fairness, millennial mobility, and repairing politics.

CSA was founded and is run by millennials. The seven-person national staff is comprised completely of students still in college. Just over two years ago, the organization began as the brainchild of a few interns at the Bipartisan Policy Center. The organization is bipartisan, meaning it affiliates with every party without exclusion and encourages joint participation across party lines. The foundation of the organization is over twenty active college campus chapters, and its membership is comprised of affiliated chapter memberships. Additionally, mobilization focuses on primaries more directly than general elections, since low turnouts increase the impact of each millennial vote, increasing the chances that millennial-friendly candidates will represent parties in the general elections.

Work at the national level is currently centered on the recently released Agenda for Generational Equity (AGE). In terms of mobility, AGE looks at furthering equality of opportunity through reforming education access, incarceration and recidivism, and diversifying pathways to employment. Endorse the platform here!

While CSA recognizes that there are policies on the table in Congress right now that will impact their

generation in the future, they very much emphasize the need to be a viable citizen demographic in order to have political expectations. The final tenant of the platform is a call to national service, which they

believe will appeal to the millennials in a special way to galvanize other forms of citizenship like voting. NCoC shares this belief, and you can find out about their national service initiatives here.

We twenty-somebodies need a strategy for finding ourselves in the political sphere. We are lacking in civic representation and concern, making us highly vulnerable to disadvantage.  CSA is a vibrant new organization, budding with potential. In its unique way, CSA may serve a vital role in the formation of the millennial political realm, and therefore the future political culture of America. Learn more about them and get involved!