Naming is everything. What we call things has a profound impact on how we perceive them. For this reason, I think it's time to retire some labels. If you aren't following me so far, here is an example: Michel Foucault, a brilliant mind in the world of Communication studies, discusses how naming affects how we see people. He uses the example of how we view the mentally ill. For a long time, those with mental illnesses were declared "mad." Madness was the term we used for those who struggles with a mental disorder. Madness, however, has a lot of negative connotations. Madness today could be considered synonymous with psychotic or insane. In today's world, it would be thought both cruel and ignorant to declare someone who struggles with bipolar disorder or depression, "mad." As society changes and grows, so does our naming.

With this argument in mind, I think it's time we retire the word "millennial."

With that, here's story time:

I am a worship leader. Last Sunday, my co-worship leader and I had the opportunity to meet someone very important in our church's community. As we were introducing ourselves as college seniors, the inevitable and dreaded question was asked, "What are your plans after graduation?"

For the record, if you're reading this and you are someone who asks this question, please stop. It makes me nauseous.

Anyway, my friend who is currently between active duty military service or grad school when he graduates, not wanting to get into all of that, said, "I'm actually not sure yet. I'm playing it by ear."

The woman's response was a notably distasteful, "Ohh, a typical millennial." I was caught off guard. We both chuckled nervously, and my friend did a great job of easing the tension and shifting the conversation but I remember very vividly being struck with this realization: "I am ashamed to be associated with the term 'Millennial'." I'm tired of being associated with the "generation of failure."

In the beginning, I'm sure it was innocent. It was just another name to distinguish our unique generation, just as madness wasn't considered derogatory at its conception. However, now it is.The technical definition of millennial is "someone who reaches adulthood in the early 21st century." Now, however, the word millennial is associated with laziness, failure, recklessness, carelessness, and seemingly everything that's wrong in America. Of course this isn't true. If that's what you think of an entire generation, I feel sorry for you. I'm sorry that you're living in a close-minded world where everything is someone else's fault. Perhaps what people need to notice is that when someone is constantly labeled with a derogatory term, it starts to damage them. If I keep being told that my generation has no future, what choice do I have but to start believing them?

I'm sorry to say, but the old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," is a load of crap. Words are the strongest and most powerful weapons at our disposal, and we use them for bad far more than we ought. It's hard to grow up in a world where it feels like people hate you.

Let's retire the term Millennial. For that matter, let's retire all of the words that only function to tear others down. Let's retire negative labels that serve only to separate us into groups. People are people. Liberals and conservatives are people. Millennials are people. Hunters and vegans, Christians, Muslims, immigrants, refugees, lesbians, Native Americans, celebrities, atheists, etc. are all people. People are not their labels.

At the end of the day, we are all the same. We have different lives, but we experience the same things: we all know love, we all know pain, we all know happiness and grief, we all know growing up and feeling like a failure.

So, let's retire the labels. Let's stop grouping people into their separate little nomenclature-driven prison cells. It's time to move on from the name-calling and bully-driven society that we live in, and embrace a society where we live and work together. No matter which side you're on politically, we can all agree that maybe America isn't at its best-- maybe we can't agree on a cure, but we can still work together and individually to make it a country where kindness thrives and hatred dies.