As the Millennial generation, we receive a lot of hate. We’re too attached to our technologies, we hashtag too much and take an excessive amount of selfies. We’re lazy, emotional, disrespectful, and ungrateful.
At least that’s what the generations before us say. They assume we have it easy or that we’re spoiled, and pride themselves on having worked through college without having debt. For Drexel University, in the 1979-1980 school year, the cost of tuition was $3,950.00. Incoming freshman for the 2016-2017 school year have a tuition cost of $42,660. Yet, according to Pew Research Center (PRC), “Millennials are on course to become the most educated generation in American history.”
So, we’re smart. And because we’re smart, we could be the generation that ends cigarette smoking. Good for us! How could anyone be mad at that?
We’re loving to each other and to our parents. Maybe when we were thirteen, our moms didn’t want us to wear sparkly purple eye liner on the aquarium field trip and we got a little fired up (sorry, Mom). Hormone-induced temper-tantrums aside, we respect the differences we see between us. PRC tells us that LGBT rights and acceptance is at an all time high among young adults of our generation.
But what about being loving to ourselves? The one area where the Millennial squad falls short is self-love and appreciation. We are “the generation on edge,” stringing ourselves out and working ourselves too hard. That’s a far-cry from the people who tell us we don’t work hard enough.
So far, Millennials, I think we’re doing pretty well. Let’s keep going.
We love learning – not necessarily sitting in a classroom and listening to a lecture type of learning, but we love knowing things and we take the initiative to go out and learn for ourselves.
We love listening – to new musical genres, stand-up comedy, the problems of our friends and the stories of our grandparents.
We’re curious – there’s a reason the Millennial generation is synonymous with Generation “Why” (a play on Generation Y).
I’m proud that I use technology to communicate with my friends across the country or my family across the ocean. I’m not ashamed to admit that my phone is like an extra appendage and I’m not ashamed of my three social media accounts (okay … five accounts, but so what?).
We are motivated, adventurous, environmentally conscious, loving, artistic, creative, hopeful, and truly incredible.
If taking too many selfies, loving the way we look and being proud to post a picture of ourselves on Instagram is a problem, then I think we are doing just fine.
So, to my fellow Millennials, I will say this: If we are being selfish, ungrateful, disrespectful, and downright awful humans in general, let’s keep doing it. It’s working for us.