Older generations love to give millennials a hard time. They say we are lazy; we are shallow; we are materialistic; we are obsessed with technology; etc. Now luckily I see these stereotypes slowly fading, however I think it is unfortunate that some people still see my generation in this light. Relating this to the recent election (because there just haven’t been enough articles on the election), I have more hope in my generation than ever before.

All throughout the election season, I saw many people taking to social media to express their political opinions. While I fully support people using their freedom of speech to share their personal views, I also noticed many adults that were substantially older than me constantly posting very close minded and extremely one sided arguments. This is not to say that I didn’t encounter similar posts from people my own age, however I have to say it was more prominent from the older generations.

The day before the election, one of my Facebook friends posted a status complimenting her daughter’s generation, which just happens to be my own. She explained how the absence of millennials posting about the election did not come from their disinterest or ignorance, but rather their maturity and ability to share their views face to face rather than from behind a screen.

Her observation made me proud of my generation. A generation that can hopefully continue to inspire our parents and grandparents. A generation that can show them that it is possible to get along with people that have different opinions from our own. A generation that can prove that one side is not right and the other one is wrong, but rather the right thing is respecting and attempting to understand each other, and the wrong thing is refusing to do so.

We are not all going to agree on everything, but if we let this get in the way of how our country functions, both at the governmental level and the personal level, we are in for an exhausting and endless fight. Unfortunately, I have already seen signs of this starting to happen. Many government officials refuse to listen to the other side, resulting in very few things getting done. Many people judge others based off of their political views, grouping individuals into the “left” and the “right.” What no one realizes is that this is the very root of the problem. People inside and outside the government assume that all people that disagree with their political views are all exactly the same, when in reality it is quite the opposite.

Although there is a lot of work to do, I believe that my generation will pave the road to a bright future. As I ate dinner in the dining hall of my very own private university, I heard three separate conversations taking place, where students were discussing the recent election. They were not arguing or blaming or complaining, but rather suggesting where they think we can all go from here. I sat in my Communications and Journalism class today, and had an open dialogue with my classmates about how the recent election makes each of us feel. We were honest, open, respectful, and considerate, understanding that we were not all going to share the same views, and that that was the very reason we were doing it.

I look up to my peers in so many ways and they give me immeasurable amounts of hope for my own future, and the future of my children and grandchildren. I think we can all learn something from millennials, and I have confidence in my generation to create the positive change that our country so desperately needs.