Recently, I ran across an article from Steppin' Out Magazine, based in New Jersey, creating a call-to-action for male millennials that is commonly heard among older generations looking down on our generation in general.
The author of this piece is very adamant that millennials do too much and expect too much of themselves. Why do we allow our elders to victimize us with their judgment? Why do we allow them to constantly talk down to us? I have been inspired to create my own call-to-action among millennials: don't listen to this article. Don't listen to anyone that tells you to slow down. The truth is that they are likely just jealous they did not have the opportunities we have at our age. Take advantage of those opportunities.
Get involved on your school's campus. Join a student organization, and make a difference. If you have extra time, be grateful for that time because many others (such as the author of the article above) are jealous of us and how much time we have to actually achieve our goals. Give back to your community because we wouldn't be able to accomplish anything without the foundation that was created by the generations before us. Be grateful for what older generations have done for us to get us to the point that we are at right now, but don't let them control or judge our lives any longer. You can be respectful and still disagree with someone's opinion.
Older generations give us advice all of the time, but should we actually even consider their opinions and advice? We have so many more opportunities today that they could never imagine having at our age. From my view, it seems as if the older generations give us biased advice in the sense that they believe their generation is smarter and better than us — and that they always will be.
I'm not saying that as millennials we should not listen to our elders at all. I'm saying that everything we take in should be taken in knowing we are in control of our lives and no advice could change that. Older generations may tell us to slow down and meditate, to give in to the temptations of relaxing and not accomplishing all that we can in our prime or that we are going to stress ourselves out, but our world is different. Older generations could never know what it is like to be a millennial. We have the world at our fingertips through channels such as social media and other new communication advancements. Take advantage of that while we can because one day our chance at creating a difference for future generations, like our elders did for us, will be gone.
Don't give up. You can get that 4.0 GPA while working a job and having a social life. We are millennials, and it is time we truly show our elders what we are made of. Let's go out in the world and prove them wrong instead of letting their criticisms get to us and hinder us. An article from Business Insider states, "millennials are going to be leaders in ways we've never 'experienced or imagined.'" We need to show the older generations of the world what we are truly made of and what we want. Let's get out there and make it known now more than ever: we are millennials, and we will not stop until we achieve all of our goals.
Above all else, remember this: we got this, millennials.
