The new year is calling, and with it, people are scrambling to write down their New Year’s resolutions. Resolutions look different for everyone. Some may list ‘lose a couple pounds’ or ‘pay off my car’ written on theirs. For Gen Z, goals look vastly different from previous generations, including their Millenial or Gen X parents.
Gen Z youth grew up listening to older generations proclaiming the importance of college as a life goal. For some, like eighteen-year-old senior at Boulder High School, Zach Thompson, the message stuck. But for him, college doesn’t just mean immediate success and bundles of money.
“There’s a lot of parental pressure and a lot of it is social expectation. All of my friends talk about going to college and getting into a good school,” Thompson said. “For my parents, there was one pathway, which was to go to college and get a job to make money. But now, it’s find what you like and find a way to make it work.”
Juanita Hurtado, a nineteen-year-old sophomore at CU Boulder, mirrors the sentiment. She said growing up, college was the epitome of success.
“College was always the goal. When people ask ‘where do you see yourself in five years?’ I have no idea how to answer that. Mostly because, for a very long time, college was the end goal and when I got to college, it was like ‘now what?’” Hurtado said.
Hurtado’s definition of success looks greatly different from the older relatives in her family. She witnessed her mother trade in her passions of theater and history for an accounting job she disliked, but ultimately made her more money.
“I want to live a life that makes me feel satisfied, a life that doesn’t make me feel stressed every single second. I also want the satisfaction of doing something that I’m really passionate about, that doesn’t consume my life … I don't want my work to consume my life.”
In addition to attending college, purchasing a home was a highly prioritized goal within older generations. For Gen Z, a home has a different meaning. Thompson said he doesn’t plan on buying a home anytime soon.
“I want to buy a house at some point, but for sure not in my twenties. I want to be moving around and figure out where I want to live,” Thompson said.
Hurtado, however, doesn’t ever plan on owning a house.
“The maintenance of a house is incredibly expensive — from the garden, to the roof, to the windows — everything. It’s not something I want to invest in and I don't think it’s possible for most single people in this economy to do so,” Hurtado said.
Although many millennials and Gen X may have ‘make more money’ on their resolution list this year, Gen Z has prioritized other aspects of their life.
“My priorities look very different from theirs. I don’t care if I get the house. I don’t care if I get an apartment as long as I can still share that time and invest that money into the people I love and the experiences I will remember one day,” Hurtado said.
Thompson echoes that statement, “I need enough to live off of, but being rich doesn’t matter to me.”
For both members of Gen Z, family, friends and working passionate careers are at the top of their New Year’s resolutions.
When asked what success means to her, Hurtado smiled.
