I can’t help but laugh any time I see or hear someone say this country is doomed because of how awful my generation is, so as you can imagine, I laugh a lot. But even though I laugh, it also makes me a little sad, and I hope that when millennials are considered an older generation, I won’t treat young people the way we’re treated. I’m tired of hearing about how awful we are, so I decided to point out a few little points. I realize that one little article isn’t going to make much of a difference, but it’s better to write than to hold everything in. So here we go!

1. The old way isn't automatically the best way.

If you’re about to say something that starts with the words “back in my day,” there’s a fairly good chance that I don’t really want to hear what’s going to come out of your mouth. Of course, some really good and/or funny stories can come out of “back in my day,” but usually someone is just going to bash the “youngsters” for having some sort of convenience that person didn’t have.

You would think that people could have come up with better arguments by now. I’m pretty sure that people have almost always complained about the younger generations for having new conveniences. Thousands of years ago, when irrigation became a thing, do you think that people said things like “All these young kids these days and their stupid irrigation. They should be out here walking miles every day hunting and gathering food the way we did!”? Yeah, it probably happened. Surprise! You aren’t the first people to hate the younger generation, yet the world is still turning.

2. We aren't stupid or lazy.

I have over 700 friends on Facebook. Most of those are people in my generation, including people from my high school and people from my college. Facebook lets me keep up with those people, and guess what. The majority of them who are my age are working incredibly hard, and there are SO many smart and talented people on my friends list. I know people my age who work full time AND go to college full time. If THAT’S lazy, I don’t think I have any interest in being motivated. And I know people who are pursuing their dreams outside of college, and that’s great! We aren’t stupid or lazy, and in case you didn’t know, everyone makes mistakes.

3. Entitled?

You know, I usually hear this one when a young person dares to express an opinion or disagree with someone older. We can be as respectful as possible when stating an opinion, but we’re still called entitled. If you think we’re entitled for having opinions, you shouldn’t have raised us saying things like, “Everyone is entitled to an opinion.” I’m all for taking responsibility for my own actions and not just blaming the way I was raised, but seriously? Don’t tell us things when we’re young and then get angry when we act upon those things.

Honestly, I mean no disrespect to anyone. I just get tired of being harassed for my age. Everyone is 20 at some point. I have opinions. I’m going to live my life the way I want, and I want other people to be able to live in a way that makes them happy, too. Get over it.