This was quite a sobering article that as a millennial I’ve been affected by personally. My parents were quite like the parents in the article praising and pushing for all of their children to achieve a bachelors degree. I remember I didn’t feel totally accomplished with the associates degree, because they’re reactions were less than impressed with the diploma that I didn’t even feel like I deserved to walk across stage to accept it. So I didn’t go, because to my parents it didn’t really count as a degree.
This kind of perfection idea of the American dream is the dream that most parents want for their children, and the fact that not everyone is suited for. I remember where I was when the student was discovered in the UAF library shot. And I remember that suicide in the UAF community is actually a lot more common, and not at all brought to light as it should. The feeling that after a day, the news was swept under the rug as fast as possible.
There needs to be a reckoning that children need to find their independence in their choices and the parents need to be okay with it. As a brand new parent I will always try to remember that forcing someone to impossible standard can be detrimental to that individual!