Allow me to preface this article by saying that this is merely my opinion and that you are entitled to your own. The purpose of this article is to help open minds.

One of the first things I'd like to discuss is the shaming of safe spaces on university campuses. Let me begin by saying that on the American University campus there is no specific room titled "Safe Space." However, there are many rooms on the AU campus that do provide students with a safe space; and I can imagine the situation is similar at other university campuses. For example, the counseling center is probably the most sought out safe space on any university campus. At AU, you can find many professors' offices with a little placard by their name outside there door that states that their office is a safe space. For those of you who just assume that a safe space is some colorful room with tissues and Play-Doh, allow me to clarify. A safe space is any place really that you can go to and talk with someone; that person can be a friend, family member, professor, coach, counselor, or even someone you barely know. If you ever consoled someone after say a family member passed away or some traumatic experience, that person provided you with a space space; a place to say anything with zero judgement or repercussions.

This idea that Millennials are weak because they choose to talk things out is absolutely false. The courage it can take for someone who has suffered a traumatic experience to finally go to someone and confide in them is something that only those who have ever done it can understand. This courage is also what helps us use our freedom to protest when Millennials protest the election results. For those out there that shame these protests, I would like you to take a good look at the Constitution again. The majority of the protests that have come out of this election have been peaceful, and I ask that you do not characterize all Millennials for the actions of a few of them.

Now I'd like to tackle this idea that Millennials are a bunch of entitled, lazy, and privileged idiots. For those that compare us to the Baby Boomers, I'd like to just discuss the numbers. The matter of the fact is that education is unaffordable. In 1979, college tuition was about $3,300 for a full year. At a minimum wage of $2.90 per hour, a student could work full time over the summer and make $1392. That leaves about $2000 to pay off, in order to get that, one would have to work 690 hours (690 x $2.90 = $2001). With 224 days during the school year (8 months = 32 weeks = 224 days), that means someone could work just 3 hours a day (690/224 = 3) and pay their way through school. Today, for a full school year, private universities cost on average $30,000 and public universities are about $10,000 (if you live in state, out of staters pay about $23,000). So allow me to crunch the numbers once more for you. So if you decide to attend a public university in your home state, you could make $3,480 with a full time summer job at a federal minimum wage of $7.25. With $6,500 left to pay, you would have to work 897 hours (897 x $7.25 = 6,503). That breaks down to 4 hours a day (897/224 = 4). However, if you even dare to think about attending a private university, you would have over $26,000 to pay which adds up to 3,587 hours of work (3,587 x $7.25 = $26,005). That means you would have to work 16 hours day (3587/224 = 16). For those like me who attend AU, which is a whopping $60,000 for a whole year, you would get crushed working 32 hours a day.

Now, you can say that those who can't afford to go to an expensive private university should simply just go to a state school or take out student loans. I'm not going to get into it as I did earlier with numbers, but allow me to just say that student loans will haunt anyone who takes them out for at least 10 years after they graduate. If I am smart enough to get into American, I should be able to attend at an affordable price. If student loans gave enough money to make college affordable and if the interest rates weren't outrageous I would probably consider them. If this is the education that I want, why should money be what stops me? How can that be fair? Why should those that have money be the only ones that can attend prestigious schools? How does that make me privileged? That's my point. It doesn't.

For those that say that we don't work for anything, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported (July 2016 report) that over 53% of Millennials (ages 16 to 24) were employed. Unfortunately, there is not data to compare to 1979 since the BLS did not record this type of data at the time. However, I would like to point out that by going to college, I am trying to make myself more marketable in the labor force once I graduate; as is the case with most college students.

Rant over. I hope that I have been able to make you understand why Millennials are really upset with other generations. These generations are putting us into a tough spot and we're smart enough to know that. To put into Trump's terms, we know we're getting a bad deal. So in four years when the Millennials finally make up more of the population than the Baby Boomers, things are really in for a change. Baby Boomers want Social Security and Millennials want affordable educations, so we'll have to finally figure out a way to make life better for those who have worked their whole lives while not screwing those who plan to work their whole lives.