I’m proud to say I grew up in the 90s where kids still played cops and robbers and we had Saturday morning cartoons. Music was all about the next Britney Spears hit and our older siblings listened to Nirvana. Our parents acted more like parents and not our friends. They also didn’t fly around us like a helicopter. We had limited time watching television and using the Internet so we played outside with our friends. I remember spending all summer going from house to house in the neighborhood playing and swimming. My childhood always brings on nostalgia and a smile to my lips.
The first sign of that life changing, was a quiet Tuesday morning in September. I remember my mother waking me up super early in the morning crying. She told me to come to the living room and we watched the news together. I was in middle school at the time so I was a little young to truly understand what was going on, but I was old enough to understand that people were dying. I remember going to school and watching what happened over and over again on the news in class. it was an awful gut wrenching feeling all day long. Now that I’m older I understand it more, but I think a lot of Americans and I will always share the common question of; why? Why would someone do something so horrible?
That horrible moment in American history started the ball rolling on what it is like being a part of my generation. We were given a promise growing up that we would have all the opportunities in the world at our finger tips. The iconic American dream was in our grasp and all we had to do was jump. The thing is when you’re told growing up that you can do anything you want to, but the world around you falls apart you’re left with a generation of passionate individuals who feel lost in a society not set up for us to succeed.
By the time we just entered college or adulthood we have already experienced an attack on American soil, a technological revolution and a market collapse. You can imagine what it feels like to be in a situation where you have all the passion and drive to reach for the stars, but you’re witnessing foreclosures, high unemployment rates and skyrocketing college tuition. If I could go back to my younger self I honestly would have done a lot of things differently like going to community college first and travel more. I’m going to have a moment of silence for all my fellow millennials in crippling college debt… RIP income for the next million years.
It’s actually a little sad how misunderstood our generation is, if you are reading the news we are narcissistic, lazy and entitled. However, we are a force to be reckoned with, being such a massive generation of people. I’ll be honest I did not vote for Obama at all, but I remember it was my generation who helped get him elected. Waves of students on my campus wore hope and change shirts. It makes complete sense that my generation rallied behind someone who used those two powerful words in his campaign. We are a generation who lost their innocence early in life and are fighting to shake up the system. We want change in many ways and I think that scares the older generations.
We want to have a work and personal life balance. I suppose demanding more free time seems lazy, but at the same time I think something needs to change with the way American society is set up. We can thank our colonists for how hard we as Americans work. It’s funny how technology was supposed to make it so that we as people do not have to work as much. Sadly to say as Americans we work work work and watch television because we are too tired to do anything afterward. I do know my generation works hard, we just want to feel like there is purpose in what we are doing with our careers and we want to be passionate about it. If we aren’t making a difference or we feel like there is no growth or flexibility we are done and moving on to something that will make us feel fulfilled. There is no dying slowly inside as our desk job eats our soul for 35 years. No the generation who saw the economy collapse in our prime and inherited debt refuses to be unhappy with what we do for our careers. We also demand that we have the free time to experience life and turn it into the adventure it’s supposed to be.
Yes you can say someone who wants to enjoy their life and have it be the adventure THEY WANT and THEY DESERVE is entitled and narcissistic. But what is so wrong to wanting to pave a path not taken by most. We are the generation who throws caution to the wind and does something because we want to do it. The 23 year old who works for six months of the year just so she can spend the next six months hiking across the United States is courageous and ambitious in her own right. Guess what, she loves it and experiences so much more than someone who works 40+ hours a week at a job they hate just to come home and watch the voice. Ironic because it’s a show of people trying to follow their passion of becoming a famous singer.
We as a generation are still young and I think we will do great things for this country. You can already see our influence in the workplace with technology, flexible hours and casual dress codes. You can also see it in American culture with embracing the LGBTQ community and fighting for marriage equality as well as legalizing marijuana in some states (which has so many medical benefits and is safer than alcohol). Our passion, innovation and anti discrimination is definitely something this country needs. Just because we are different than what you are used to doesn’t make it a bad thing, it only makes it different. You know what different is utterly beautiful.
Through the Eyes of a Millennial
Reply
An Examined Life 