Last week, one of my English professors had my class read an article discussing Generation Snowflake. Basically, Generation Snowflake is a term to describe my generation and the fact that we appear to be taking offence and having less resilience for life’s struggles. I found myself torn in trying to take sides on this matter. In one respect, I’m a rather sensitive person and I like to try to make everything rather politically correct so as not to offend someone, in another sometimes I feel like I’m walking on eggshells constantly.

I do agree that we are in a time of life where people take greater offense to topics and issues that our parents normally wouldn’t have. Gay rights, race discrimination, immigration, etc. are all topics that most people in America have extremely strong opinions on, and often someone ends up getting offended by someone else’s opinion. I don’t really believe that there is much of a problem in that aspect, if someone is trying to make social change and there are others who are inhibiting that, frustration is sure to follow.

I think the difference with this is if people are trying to change. By this, I mean those who were raised to believe certain things on tough topics, realizing their mistakes, and are at least making an effort to change. This is where I think Generation Snowflake has really gone too far. People are going to make mistakes, it’s human nature, especially if someone was raised to understand something one way and is trying to completely change their whole thought process to enact social change.

We need to calm down. We need to let these individuals make mistakes and learn from them. They aren’t trying to be rude or offensive, they’re trying to change, and Generation Snowflake should understand how difficult change can be.

For those people who are trying to change, but are having difficulty, we should be lifting them up, not tearing them down. We need to support our friends and family who want to be different. They need our encouragement, not our slander.

Do I think that Generation Snowflake is a reality? I think to an extent it is, and that we take things too far, me included at times. Yet, do I think that we are completely unjustified in our offense? No, not when it is something we deeply care about down to the very core of our souls.

We need to help those who truly want to be better to become their best selves. Stop getting angry and upset at every single mistake, but instead enlighten them. Teach them. Listen to them. Be the reason they choose to be different. If we continue to get angry at everything we will scare all of these people away and we need as much help as we can possibly get.