The Reset Generation

People ages 30 and younger live in a totally different world than what people have seen before. With the likes of Myspace (a former favorite of mine), Facebook, and Twitter around, everyone is alive and well when it comes to status updates, new pics from the party last night, and the latest twitter bomb. These same people are what many people have called "The Reset Generation."

The Resets (as I'll call them the rest of the way) are in the thinking that everything can just be wiped out by hitting the reset button. Whether it be on that video game that the computer is cheating or deleting the status update that was inappropriate, let's hit the reset button and poof, everything is back to normal. Most of the people of this generation just hit the reset button and you get back to where you want to be. Unfortunately, this isn't reality when it comes to adulthood.

When you get into the working world, if you have a job, you can't just say "I quit" and be gone from that self described "dead-end" job. You have to think about how you are going to pay the bills, how you are going to eat, and how you are going to put gas in the car? If you quit and are able to find a job immediately, good for you, but in this economy the likelihood of that happening isn't high. Possibly, your job is terrible and you hate going to work everyday but you realize that because of the above mentioned things you have to stick through it.

I get to see it all the time in AAU basketball. Little Johnny isn't playing or getting as many touches as mom and dad think he deserves and all of a sudden he is playing for another AAU team. Same thing happens with transferring high schools. A lot of the time, it doesn't necessarily work out how the parents planned. I know here in Minnesota and in California, they are pretty strict about movements to different high schools.

Don't get me wrong, I'm in this generation. I've hit the reset button many times on my old Sega Genesis game system when I was playing Sonic the Hedgehog. I switched high schools my senior year (though my family moved). I went through some tough times in college in my basketball career. Even my dad said if I didn't play my junior year, it was time to look at other schools. I sat for the first two years because I wasn't good enough to play (didn't realize that then but now I do). I could've easily transferred to greener pastures but I'm in the proving people wrong business.

I didn't think I got a fair shot from Nelson. Guess what I did, I forced him to play me by working harder than everyone else. I did everything I could to get on the floor. I heard, "You're the least athletic player I've ever coached," just about every other day. I might have laughed during practice but it drove me to become a better athlete and better basketball player. By the middle of my junior year I found myself in late game situations all the time. I was the guy Nelson trusted with the ball at the end of the game. I earned that. It wasn't given to me.

Another example with me was my job at Potsdam right after college. I had a graduate assistant job there where I was paid very minimally, as in, well below the poverty line. The perks of my job was that I was coaching basketball, I was getting most of my grad degree paid for, and I had two other guys that I worked with in the same situation as me. The negatives to my job was that I worked my tail off everyday for basically nothing, I lived in the middle of nowhere (2 and 1/2 hours from Syracuse and 3 from Albany), and the fact that I lived in a community is all about fishing, hunting, and drinking none of which I do.

I didn't feel wanted (the GA's weren't invited to staff or included in any other perks) and I felt that I did more than just about everyone else on staff and wasn't given anything in return. I stuck it out there for two years because I knew it was best for me to get my grad degree but I hated that place. As soon as I got that offer from WVU, I was gone. I still keep in touch with one of the other GA's that I worked with but I don't ever plan on going back there. It wasn't fun but I grinded through.

Nelson went through a similar thing when he was in college. The head coach at his college told the starting point guard that Nelson would never play there when Nelson was a freshman. What did Nelson do? He went out to prove that coach wrong and ended up starting for three years and led the team to the NCAA tournament.

Maybe, Nelson and I have similar personalities. We are grinders and had to earn things instead of having things given to us like a lot of our teammates had. It could be the reason why were are both coaching. We are willing to work for what we get and the work that we put in will make whatever program we are at better.

We need to realize that the easy way out isn't always the best way out. Sometimes you just have to work at it and the breaks eventually will go your way.