or How I Sold Out to Social Engineering

I heard the song Shiny Happy People by REM (I think) and it got me thinking about how my boyfriend and I were ‘shiny happy people’. We really are the perfect people, a Barbie and Ken couple living perfect lives. It’s scary.

We were perfect from birth, achieving every milestone in the baby book, and as we grew up we just continued our streak of achievements. I was consistently a top student and precocious to a fault. I once declared at the age of seven that “I know where babies come from!” and I did. Actually all I knew was that sperm + egg = baby, but I guess that declaration was enough to scare my parents for a bit…

We coasted through high school with a long, long list of A’s in the major exams, and more importantly, so did our friends. We didn’t achieve in solitude, we hung out with other similar high achievers and became sort of a “smart people’s clique”. Even as we entered university, my friends and I continued being the children of other people’s dreams. Marry doctors? Rubbish! We’d rather BE doctors. Going to university was a given for us, the only question was which college we’d go off to.

And now we’re looking to settle into long-term relationships and kidding each other about who will be the first to get married. We’re on our way to achieving the suburban dream. We did everything our parents wanted for us, and the road ahead looks like easy coasting.

When did we sell out? When did we settle for just having a good life and having enough money? Where is the idealism that pushed us into medicine and law? I’m not saying I’m unhappy with my life. It’s just that, when you look at the big picture, our contribution is going to be so very transient. We wouldn’t have made a difference in the world.

I followed Social Engineering’s instructions to the letter. Study hard. Find a nice boy. Listen to your parents. There was nothing in there about social activism or speaking out, because these are the jobs of mavericks. I’m living the perfect suburban life and suddenly it seems so fake.