I think that the ones that will be happiest will be the ones that come to terms with personal responsibility, and have a good work ethic. Having goals and working towards them makes people happy. Happiness is not a sustained state; it’s actually the pursuit that makes people happy. Nor is happiness an immediate state.
The 23–30s are a generation that was told at school that “all children are gifted” and that “trying is the same as achieving.” We seem to have ended up with a generation of Holden Caufields. There are a lot of bright people with expensive educations that are working part time jobs and having parents pay their bills because they think committing to working in office is a sell-out. There are also a lot of people who have creative degrees but no real talent. And let’s not forget those who couldn’t decide what they wanted to do after high school, so they are sitting, waiting, for motivation to strike them, eight years later.
This was expressed to me by a 25 year old co-worker, who, among her friends, is the only one of three who are working full time, paying all her own bills, and is able to go to grad school and have her employer pay for it.