Discuss “I don’t have a job yet, and I’m okay with it. Why aren’t you?”

No matter what stage of life you are in, there seems to be an age-appropriate question those around you feel compelled to ask. When you’re young, it’s “What do you want to be when you grow up?” In high school, it becomes “What college do you want to go to?” As college graduation rolls around, it evolves into “What are your plans? Where are you working?” After that comes “When are you getting married?”, “When are you having kids?”, “When are you retiring?”, and “When are you going to die?”

The problem I have with this line of questioning does not lie within the questions themselves, but rather the reaction to their answers. When I was younger, I went through a number of phases trying to figure out my niche in...