Back in the day, I was not a Millennial. I was simply Madison. I was a small child in a big world with even bigger dreams, and to me there was no such thing as a generation X or Y. They had different names when I was growing up. They were called Mom and Dad or Grandma and Grandpa or Gran and Papa.
It used to be like that for everyone. For a short while, we all got to grow up without these labels that would eventually lead to us fighting against each other. The world has this strange obsession with putting everyone into teams, groups or categories.
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But it is not just the world that does this. We do it to ourselves every day. When the world tells us that we cannot be individuals, we rebrand ourselves as something shiny and new. We act like we are becoming our own individual selves, but really we are just joining another group.
Gay, straight, black, white, Generation Y and Generation X: these do not even begin to cover the amount of groups that we can place ourselves into today. It is not wrong to want to be a part of something that makes you who you are. What is wrong is letting us grow up with big dreams in our heads, and letting us find out who we are, and then telling us that we are somehow lesser for being in any group that we are born into.
I am one of the lucky ones. I grew up with many supportive people around me, and I do not feel the need to be ashamed of who I am. Many others do not have this luxury, and it is about time to sort out all of these ridiculous arguments.
Yes, I am a Millennial and yes, I guess you could say I have an agenda. I want to fix things in a world that is broken. I want to be able to speak my mind, and have intelligent conversations with others around me. I want to be the best person I can be, and I want to live out my dreams in a world where many do not get that option.
This is too much to ask for. Other generations describe the Millennials to be the most selfish generation, and maybe we are. We ask for a lot of change. We want progress and development in the world, and not just in our own backyards. We use the word “want” frequently.
Maybe this is why we seem so selfish to others. I used a whole paragraph of wants. But until we can finally get everyone to see the change that we need, the best we can do is keep working and keep wanting.
I do not think as a whole we are selfish. Everyone has their selfish moments, but we have to stop treating people like they are in a classroom. If one person does something wrong, that person alone needs to be reprimanded. We cannot keep spreading the blame over full classrooms, or communities. That gives the troublemakers the idea that what they did is something they can get away with, and then by an unfair default, the rest of us are made to look bad.
Millennials have also been described as disrespectful. I believe that our generation has just found a voice that has been so long lost. We can no longer sit idly by and let the world run itself into the ground. There is an extreme to every case, and I know that some of you who read this paragraph will think, “what a typical Millennial who wants to go out and start riots!” But I do not want to fight. As a Millennial, I want to speak, I want to be heard and, above all else, I just want people to listen instead of flying off the handle.
I am sure that many of the ideas that I share are not all nuggets of gold. I do not think that my mouth pours out diamonds every time I speak. But the best way to receive respect is to give respect in return.
I found out I was Millennial at an early age. I did not know that I would be called that, but I quickly found a voice. But like many other Millennials that I encounter in life or in the news, my voice was different. And though we are perceived as selfish and disrespectful, our voices did not speak out for ourselves, but they spoke out for others.
I was bullied. So was everyone. I am nothing special in that regard. And yes, what people said to me and about me did affect me, but I pretended it did not, and I let it go. It was only after I saw someone else in my place that I spoke out. I would not tolerate another person feeling the way that I felt on a daily basis. And I would not let another person speak so negatively to a person they could not even know.
“Listen to this Millennial go on about herself, she is so self-righteous,” I know. I can hear it too. My entire life I have been afraid to say something that would make me seem anything less than humble, because then I would sound cocky and rude. But I am not as self-righteous as I appear to be.
I had a tendency to take situations too far. I was a little bit dramatic even back in those days. So one or two kids got slapped, and I lifted a few others by their shirt collars, but I know that this was not the right way to handle things. The hardest lesson to learn is that your words do not matter, and instead of trying to make my words meaningful, I used sheer force.
Force gets you into a lot of trouble. Whether it is in elementary school or out in the streets of the real world. Force is scary. There are too many stories out right now about how force has taken over our ability to find meaningful words. We want change and we want results, but when words fail we act like children and our use of force becomes prominent because it makes a quick impact. But that impact is almost always negative.
This negative force has segregated us far more quickly and widely than ever before. We do not just have divisions between race, but gender, generation and sexuality. Force has gotten us here, but we desperately need words to bring us somewhere new.
Generation X gets a lot of bashing from my generation too. “I would not have to fight so hard today if it was not for Generation X.” But the world was messed up long before we started naming generations. Every generation is alike in a few ways. We are stubborn and we toss blame back and forth like a beach ball.
We blame older generations for leaving us a mess and they blame us for creating new messes. But to anyone who has ever cleaned up a room, we all know that it gets a lot messier before it is completely clean.
That is the world we live in. It is big and it is a mess, but there is so much room for new opportunities and changes. The older generations can only see us in the messy phase, but the Millennials see us in the cleaning up phase. Neither of them are wrong, but when they stand at the bedroom door arguing about the mess, no one is taking time to pick it up.
Instead of shouting about how lazy the Millennials are, I propose that we go back to being kids and parents again. Parents just want to see good changes for their children, and children just want to find the fastest way to fix everything. To some, that may sound like laziness, but deep down we are just two different groups of people who want the same thing: progress.
Parents are afraid that we may not be able to reach our dreams, because maybe that is what happened to them. They have been here longer, and they have seen what the world can do. It is sad to see a generation hardened by the harsh realities of the world. They want the best for us, and hopefully we get our dreams. They just want us to be prepared if that does not work out.
The older generations want us to know that life is not always a fairytale. You have to work hard, and then maybe you can at least get a few of the things that you wanted. And the Millennials are still in the stage where they are prepared to fight for it all: the dreams, the change and the better life. Neither generation has ever been very good at giving up, but as we grow we change our perspective.
When our parents were young, they fought for change too. They made some healthy strides towards a better future, but of course not everything can change overnight. Now that they are older, they see that same fight in us, to help make the world a better place, but they have to change their perspective. That is their kid out there, and the world gets more dangerous every day.
They may not get to see the world change into its final, better form, but they can try to give us the best life we can have in a world that takes many generations to change. They want us to be prepared for the world when they are no longer there to help guide us, and Millenials are just like kids when they hug their parents and say, “It is going to be all right. I can take care of myself now.” It is hard for the older generations to accept that they might have to leave behind the generation they raised, but in the end we are all prepared for it. Whether it comes tomorrow or in 20 years, a change is coming and every generation had their chance to help.
We are all working together; so stop fighting like we want different things. We all want the same ending, but now it is our turn to pick up where they left off. We love them, and though we argue like parents and children, every day we make something great, and every day we are closer to that better world we all deserve.
For those who cannot see it, I just beg you to change your perspective. Once that happens, maybe we can finally reach an understanding. We are not so different. The apple does not fall too far from the tree. So it is going to be all right. We can take care of ourselves now. Thank you for everything, we will not let you down.
