Adam Miller working on his feature film project for Advanced Filmmaking – Digital Content Creation. Photo provided by Adam Miller.
By Trevor Knapaysweet [1]
BELLEVILLE – What drives us to move forward? Is it the promise that if we work hard enough, we can achieve our wildest dreams and own the most expensive car? Or is it the fear and dread of being left behind?
Food, housing, and jobs are the necessities we expect to have, and to be readily available to us.
But for many graduating students, it’s not as clear that promise will be fulfilled.
Many 2024 graduates will enter a world that struggles with housing availability and a poor job market.
It’s counter to what the graduates were told when they were young.
Growing up, we were told that going to college would open a multitude of opportunities that would enable us to live our lives to the fullest.
The dream of going to school, getting a job, starting a family, and retiring happily, seems more like a dream to the current generation. Older generations were often able to walk into any business that was hiring, ask for a job, and start the next Monday. They were able to buy homes on one person’s income.
That is not the case anymore for a majority for those born in the 80s and later.
That way of life has always been promised and yet many don’t believe that dream is achievable anymore. The way of life is what it always had been: a dream.
Millennials and those after are struggling to pay rent, buy groceries, and find meaningful work. It is hard to achieve the quality of life we all strive for.
Let’s take housing as an example.
In 1985, the average price of a house in Toronto [2] was a little over $100,00. Now for a major city in Ontario, that same house goes for more than half a million. The median price for a Canadian home in 2024 averages about $700,000. How is that achievable for people who want to start families, or do have families and want to own rather than rent?
An article written on Saveur.com [3] about grocery spending habits of millennials, as well as restaurant dining, demonstrates the disconnect between the older and younger generations. It says that despite spending less on groceries, they are also spending less on restaurants. The disconnect suggests the article doesn’t understand why millennials aren’t spending money on things they can’t afford.
And following the “Greatest Generation” and the world they left for younger people, younger people are now labelled as the “Anxious Generation”.
The Anxious Generation. A title given to them based on availability, or lack thereof, of jobs and houses.
Despite the harsh world the younger generations adopted, the hope of living a fulfilling life and the small chance of achieving their dreams is what drives them to press forward. The hope we can provide for ourselves and the ones we love. Despite all those fears of finding a life to live, people are instead just living their life, and the hope of landing on our feet is what keeps them going. They don’t want to miss out on what life offers because the system benefits the older generation and doesn’t leave enough for the younger generations.
That is the case with Adam Miller, a student in the Advanced Filmmaking Digital Content Creation program at Loyalist College.
Adam comes from a small town north of Sudbury. He came to Loyalist to attend Broadcasting – Film, TV & Digital Content Creation and discovered a passion in the pre-production aspects of film & television, specifically storytelling.
When asked about his future, Adam replied:
“I’m looking forward to getting out in the industry and I feel like I’m ready to move on from school and take that next step.” He added that “it is absolutely both exciting and scary” continuing “But I think what tips it in my favor is that I really do think that I went to school for the right thing.”
“Nobody thinks they’re good enough or has the skills to do a job. But once it’s thrown in your lap and you have to just kind of figure it out. That’s where the real growth happens and you’re going to figure out how to how to make it work.”
Miller decided on a career that would allow him more free time to spend with his wife and kids. After the completion of his initial program, he continued onto the advanced 3rd year to hone the skills he learned.
Miller honing his skills as director for Black Bird. Photos provided by Adam Miller
“All that potential and the possibilities is kind of what’s keeping me striving towards it rather than shying away from it.”
Adam’s feature film, Black Bird can be viewed here. [4]
Jennifer O’Neill shares the same enthusiasm. She returned to school to follow a path that role models in her family inspired her to do and she hopes to be able continue that legacy.
O’Neill comes from an interesting background: she was born in Chatham, grew up in Arizona, then settled in Belleville at the age of 16.
Jennifer wanted to be able to assist her children when they enter college, so she returned to school to obtain her high school diploma and enter a holistic nutrition program in Ottawa . After that, she decided that the social work program was the next logical step.
She is currently doing a placement at Loyalist College in the Indigenous Resource Centre.
Jennifer preparing material for a presentation. Photos by Trevor Knapaysweet
O’Neill’s long-term plans are to open a health and focus on allergy removals. After a harrowing allergic reaction that her son suffered and attending acupuncture appointments for 3 years, her son no longer had allergic reactions to bees. She discovered in that moment she wanted to be able to treat others. To be able to help people, just like her son, who suffer from allergies.
Following the steps of her parents and aunt and uncle, who owned their own holistic health clinics, she discovered a passion of utilizing natural alternative medicines to help people.
“I’m just really passionate about that. I like that part of it. The herbs and medicine in natural ways. That’s why I’m really drawn to it, and the social work kind of goes hand in hand.”
Despite all those fears of finding a life to live, people are instead just living their life, and the hope of landing on their feet is what keeps them going. Discovering passions that drives them. Bettering themselves for the people who rely on them. They move on: to not miss out on what life offers because the system was set up for the older generation and not for those they will leave the world to.