Millennial

The problem with millennials is:
They think they are entitled.
They are whiny.
They are lazy.
They are self-absorbed and narcissistic.

Except they don't and they aren't. Here's the thing, I'm a Millennial. I was born January 20,1990. I'm just shy of twenty-seven years old. The older people around me tend to throw around the word Millennial like it is an insult. They see young people that do match the above description and link it to all people of Gen Y. The recent protests and riots over Donald Trump becoming President Elect and having entire colleges shut down because of it is the latest wave of Millennial bashing to sweep my news feed on Facebook.

  There are many problems with that and one of the biggest is that you are assuming everyone in this generation is lazy, whiny, and wants everything handed to them without work. Such a broad generalization would be the same as me saying that those in 'the Greatest Generation' and many of the older Baby Boomers are all racist simply because of their age during the Civil Right's Movement. I mean there were certainly older boomers and those from the greatest generation screaming racial slurs as schools were desegregated. So why not lump all of them in one solid category as racist? If it works for lazy, whining Millennials it works for them. Clearly that is flawed logic or the Civil Rights Movement would have only been African American's, except it wasn't, there were white people involved.

I'm not saying that there aren't people my age who certainly act entitled or are lazy. But, you can't decry an entire generation for the actions of a few. That isn't how things work and it certainly isn't going to make them better. I'll admit that having people my age not go to school because they refuse to accept that Donald Trump will be the next President and are literally asking for crying time-outs from class makes me embarrassed. That being said hearing how poor a generation we are because of those people makes me far angrier. Why in the world would we want to take advice from the older generation when the only things we hear from them are you are horrible, lazy, good for nothing, brats? It isn't even logical to ask us to heed your advice.

  Actually, think about that for a moment. If you walked into work starting Monday and for the entire week you heard nothing from your boss but how horrible an employee you were would you continue working there? I'd say most of you probably wouldn't and you couldn't be blamed for leaving. Money might help you live but dignity and self-respect are just as important to living. You can't constantly deride an entrie generation and actually expect anything  good to come from that line of action. There is a chunk of wisdom in the old adage 'you catch more flies with honey than vinegar'. People don't respond well to being debased or thought of as useless.

It certainly can't be said that we aren't open to communication. This generation is more tied to communication than any before it, we were young when the internet became public, we got internet at my house when I was in sixth grade. I remember well my years before it hit my house but I also remember logging onto AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) for the first time and the ease with which I could talk to multiple friends at once even though they weren't right there with me. We do like to communicate and I daresay we want to hear from those who came before us and get their take on things but that goes both ways. If you want us to listen to you, to heed the advice you have, you need to be willing to listen to us without telling us with your attitude that you'd rather be anywhere but speaking with us, because you don't think we matter.

  We are a generation not of lazy people but one who is fast finding it's footing and taking the world by storm. A vast majority of the non-profits that exist right now were started by Millennial's. If anything this generation is doing its best to make the world better, not worse. Social issues are a big deal, not because we are narcissistic  and want attention but because we want to help. Beyond that this generation has already doubled the number of businesses started by the one before us, Forbes 30 under 30 is a good place to check out just how profitable the area of business has been for people my age, Facebook, Instagram,and Snapchat were all started by Millennials and all raked in a great deal of money, entrepreneuership at its finest. Before you make your next purchase you might want to do some research, unless you are shopping at a tiny Mom&Pop shop you could be benefiting from the brainchild of one of those lazy Millennial's.

So from a Millennial that isn't lazy, whiny, self-absorbed, narcissistic, or entitled please think before you share a video on how lazy people my age are, or blast us with some article or another calling us any number of things. You had your chance to prove who you were to the world, give us ours, and please, don't judge all of us by the actions of a few, you wouldn't want such treatment.

(So here's the thing, I've had so many posts in my news feed the past week or so all of which were put up by people older than myself about how lazy and entitled people my age were. This is my response. I don't respond rashly, this has been in my head for a couple of days. I actually do enjoy talking to people older than myself and gaining advice. I just started farming and know 0 things about that lifestyle. But, I'm learning. Most of which is coming from our fantastic neighbors who thankfully don't look at me like so many others do people my age, they are willing to teach and to get to know me without any preconceived notions, and I have to say that is a nice thing.)