How Breaking Bad Speaks To Our Generation's Underemployment Crisis

...in gifs!

It begins when you realize that you can do better.

And you take a small step, quitting that dead end job.

Which may leave you unemployed for a little while...

It's frustrating that your $200,000 education won't get you a decent job.

This is where Walt's story may depart from ours, as he does something crazy to try to make his dream future a reality.

He's not going to let others tell him that it's too late to pursue his dreams.

Walt knows there's something he can do better than the rest.

And we root for that to succeed.

Of course Walt, like us, is totally clueless on how to pursue his venture.

But Walt, like us, is willing to put in the hard work to make it happen.

(Although sometimes we need to take a break from the job search.)

Because we, like Walt, experience a lot of frustration along the way.

And because the inevitable rejection from employers can be pretty tough to handle.

Yeah... seeing limited options can be downright depressing.

And we wish that part of the story was just a dream.

At first, Walt has no clue what he's doing, which is what makes his victories all the more exciting.

With that hat and those sunglasses... yeah, no clue.

We relate to Walt because the show ignores the evils of meth consumption, instead focusing on Walt's pursuit of what we all want.

Something that most of us are accustomed to living without.

(as is the permanent state of my I-phone screen).

And we relate to Walt, because he doesn't accept failure.

Even when the forces against him seem insurmountable.

Instead, he adapts and evolves into what we all want to also become: a total badass.

Man, that was pretty sweet right there.

When we aren't finding hope in our underemployment situation, we vicariously find hope in Walt's.

And so, at the end of the day, we cheer when Walter White succeeds. Because it's not really him succeeding, it's us.

And here's a gif of Junior, because we don't want to leave him out.