I’m a Millennial and I Like It

          I’m tired of having the term “Millennial” be implied as a bad thing. Millennials get labeled as entitled, lazy and job-hoppers due to specific characteristics of our generation. Sure, there are those of us who fit the stigma, but all stereotypes are based in small truths. Not all athletes in school are dumb jocks or skating by academically due to their sport and not all Millennials only want to job hop in order to make a lot of quick cash or feel they deserve the world without putting in the necessary work. I like to think we’re misunderstood and I’ve grown to accept that I truly belong within this generation. We were brought up on the notion of “follow your dreams” and “you can be whatever you want to be, as long as you put your mind to it.” So, is it so shocking that we don’t like committing to things right off if they don’t match our standards or values? Millennials are finding their way to their dream jobs and dream partners; it’s just taking longer than it did for our parents. If not settling when it comes to work or personal relationships means I’m a true Millennial, then that’s fine with me.

           I, like anyone from any generation am a product of my environment and there are multiple factors shaping the characteristics of the Millennial generation. Finding the dream job is akin to matchmaking and like the current dating scene in our society. It may take longer to find the right match and so you may need to swipe left, left and left again until swiping right on a good one. So, we get labeled as entitled or self-involved because we’re truer to ourselves. Like going on multiple dates to see if there’s chemistry or a spark there, one may go on loads of interviews while spreading the resume around every social platform. We want to find the best versions of ourselves reflected in the jobs we choose or the partners we choose. This notion of “you deserve the best,” where the entitlement aspect of our generation comes into play stems from the Baby Boomer generation, my parents’ generation telling us as much. My elementary school founder gave speeches to us on the playground during our weekly Friday school assemblies and always told us how special we were. I remember giggling with my classmates as we tried to count exactly how many times he used the word special. It was a decent amount.

          We epitomized the old “what do you want to be when you grow up” question. However, instead of growing out of wanting to be a Rockstar or veterinarian we kept asking ourselves “why not?” Millennials greatly value education, more so than previous generations. College was meant to be the best four years of our lives and even though a Philosophy degree was more esoteric than a degree in Economics or Communications, it could still lead you down the path to being a teacher or lawyer. In the past ten years about 35.3% of 29-year-olds, Millennials, have at least a Bachelor’s degree. This is in comparison to only 17.6% of 29-year-olds in the early 1970’s, Baby Boomers, having Bachelor degrees. We were told we could accomplish a lot and so that early inception of achievement put us to work toward getting degrees and eventually climbing the corporate latter faster than was done by previous generations. Getting ahead at work and at a faster pace is needed for Millennials to feel real satisfaction from their work (Resource Solutions).

          A Forbes article from 2017 addresses the way certain parenting techniques of the Baby Boomers may have backfired on Millennials as children and young adults. Boomers tell us “Growing up we never got the attention you received” and “Our parents made us responsible to go figure it out. That caused us continual struggle and disappointment. We rescued you from all of that!” (Forbes 2017). My parents have certainly given my sister and I a lot. We both attended private high schools and Ivy League Universities for college. We got to go to these schools, regardless of price. The Boomers wanted us to feel they cared and supported us, sometimes too much. Giving us so much and telling us to follow our dreams regardless of the circumstances made some Millennials sheltered. When we truly believe we can achieve whatever we want with ease, we can lose sight of harsh realities of the world. Certain jobs don’t seem good enough. Our parents’ generation wanted us to have what they didn’t from their parents and so they made damn sure they were able to give it to us. Well, we have high standards and demand a lot from life, but at our core we want to be happy. We want joy from our work, not just a good paying job that we like.

          Reaching for the stars may seem like a childish aim from a young adult with Peter Pan syndrome, but wanting more also means learning and doing more. According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2019 Millennials are, generally, better educated and have brough more racial and ethnic diversity into society. Women, especially, have attained a lot more. Millennial women are “about four times (43%) as likely as their Silent Generation predecessors to have completed as much education at the same age” (Pew Research Center 2019). The Silent predecessors refers to my grandparents’ generation when they were in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties. Millennials are also more motivated by family values and their personal life because they started their careers during the economic decline (Resource Solutions). We witnessed the importance of family support and realized that job security can be fleeting. Therefore, settling for a mediocre job that gives way to little or no reward in life is not worth having. I want to be able to give my kids the life my parents gave me. This doesn’t mean, though, that I’ll stay at a job that doesn’t make me happy even if the money is good. I want to attain the necessary success for future stability and wealth as a result of being somewhere where I really want to be. In 2015, more than half of Millennials described themselves as self-absorbed while only 36% saw themselves as hardworking and 24% saw themselves as responsible (The Guardian). As my college sociology professor said “what gets in young gets in deep.” From a young age, it is engrained into our brains that we are special and able to achieve anything regardless of the hurdles put in front of us. This caused some inflated egos and hypersensitivity to things when they didn’t go our way. So, maybe we are more in tune with the negative comments and stereotypes about us. Regardless of what other people or generations say about me and my generation, I love feeling free to pursue the things I know will make me most happy. The path was laid out for me to achieve great things and I will, but at my own pace and in my own way.