When I was a kid, I had a lot of crazy ideas about what I wanted to be when I grew up. Sometimes it was a ballerina, other times a rabbi and more often than not, the first female president of the United States. When I got a little bit older, dreams of being the president changed into dreams of being an actor, a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Today, when people ask me what I am going to do when I get my degree in Anthropology, I usually change the subject because, frankly, I have no idea. Ideally, I would love to find a way to get paid to travel the world, but realistically, I know that's not likely to happen.

But does looking at the situation realistically mean that I am giving up on my dreams? According to Dr. Gregory Jantz, it does. In his August 2011 op-ed in the Huffington Post, Dr. Jantz argues that our generation, "Generation Vexed," has given up on its dreams because of the stalled economy. He further compares us to the generation of young adults in the 1940s, who he believes were able to accomplish their dreams in spite of the Great Depression and World War II. Why can't we be more like them?

Well, there are a lot of reasons. The 1940s were a different time, to say the least. Statistically speaking, it was a lot easier to go out and accomplish one's dreams in the 1940s than it is today. According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people over 16 who are participating in the labor force has increased by about 17 percent.

That may not sound like a lot, but if past trends are any indication, that number is going to keep growing. And though the number of people participating in the labor force and actively seeking jobs is growing, the number of available jobs is not. Our counterparts of the 1940s were able to delve into jobs and careers much more easily than we are today because there was simply less competition in the job market.

Then there's the problem of education. In the 1940s, the cost of college was generally under $100 (or $1,305.91 when adjusted for inflation in 2011), and the G.I. Bill meant that veterans returning from World War II could go to college for free.

Today, the cost of college averages between $20,000 and $40,000 a year. In the 1940s, many jobs did not even require one to have a bachelor's degree, let alone a graduate degree. Today, getting a job with even a bachelor's degree is difficult at best because more and more employers are requiring a master's degree and higher.

Everyone is reading about our stalled economy in the news, but the fact is that it's our generation that bears a disproportional amount of these difficulties. Just ask someone from the Class of 2011. There are some lucky students who were able to land good jobs after graduation, yet about 45 percent of recent college graduates are either not working at all or working at a job that doesn't require a college degree. Everyone else has delayed the search and rushed straight into grad school.

So back to this dreams business. Just because I don't go to Juilliard does not mean that I gave up on my childhood dream of being a ballerina. Rather, as I grew up, I adjusted my dreams to better fit my interests and life circumstances. I do not have the physical ability and years of training to be a ballerina. Once I got to college, I realized that I hate politics, and at this point someone else will probably beat me to the punch in becoming the first female president. My dream of getting paid to travel the world needs to be adjusted as well. I'll never stop searching for a job that would allow me to do that, but if I can't find one, I will have to settle for something less. When I graduate I have to make a living and unfortunately, dreams alone cannot sustain me.

So are we "Generation Vexed"? Absolutely. I am sure that even Dr. Jantz would be just as vexed if he faced as many barriers to achieving his dreams as we do today. We have every right to be vexed when we come to the realization that maybe achieving our dreams isn't possible because all the cards are stacked against us. Dr. Jantz achieves nothing in comparing us to a generation of a different time, except to make us even more vexed because they had it a lot easier than we do.

And have we given up on our dreams? No way. Even when we realize they might not be possible, we do keep dreaming. Young people today are coming up with some of the best ideas for how to fix this broken world that the young people of the 1940s left us. Will we be able to? Only time will tell. But in the meantime, we'll keep trying.