Growing up with trophies and awards presented to us for nothing more than participation seems to have turned us all into entitled narcissists. Social media taught us that instant gratification and self branding is more important than close personal relationships. Our laziness and inability to follow instruction in the corporate ladder is the reason we look for handouts such as free education and health care, and do not even get me started on our obsession with political correctness! Somehow our generation is in such disarray and there is no way we can fix ourselves; as we begin to take reigns in this world it is certain that so many things will go to ruins. Let’s take a look at a few of the many things that make us 1980-2000 babies the worst generation yet.

1. Participation trophies turned us into Entitled Brats.

Receiving a participation award for soccer in third grade really did a number on me. To this day I still expect to be placed in a professional league by the time I am thirty. Even with the endless amount of academic achievement awards that litter my mothers storage closet, that participation award from years ago really pointed me towards my true calling. When the coaches showed gratitude towards my commitment to the team, and the time I dedicated for practices, I just knew that there was no other job that could be as rewarding. But of course, because I was rewarded for the little success I had in the game, I just assumed that I would never need to kick another ball for praise! No. Millennials do not feel entitled any more than the youthful generations before us. If you’re going to label us anything, call us hopeful. We analyze the aspects of society that need to be fixed and we stand up to demand change. Sticking up for what we believe is right and molding the country into a place for change and forward thinking is not us trying to run the show and be bossy, unless your logic is equivalent to that of a second grader. Instead, we are trying to be the change we wish to see.

For future reference, do not tell your children that they deserve the world if you’re only going to get upset that they believe you.

2. Who needs to make friends when we have social media to dumb us down?

Social media is largely to blame for the fact that many millennials have a hard time building steady relationships. Because now that we can find our friends based on things we’re actually interested we do not find it necessary to go to a bar and start talking to a stranger that we will probably hate everything about. I know, millennials are subject to so much falsity on the web that they will never fully understand what’s going on in the world until they pick up a newspaper. The analytical skills we build by learning to sift between facts and propaganda are of more use than simply to decide which Facebook posts are real. We are the generation to stand up to the bias media. We are the generation to question politicians on their every move. We are the generation to build lifelong connections that fill more than just time. We challenge each other, we challenge ourselves and we use social media to make global connections.

3. We want free things

For some reason we millennials think that things such as affordable education and free health care should be human rights. I know, it’s crazy, we want to tax everyone at 99% of their paycheck to obtain this, of course. Most of us pray to Bernie Sanders every night so it must be that we want to take all your money so we don’t need to pay for medical bills and schooling like the generations before us. Except the really crazy thing is that it’s only really necessary to tax around 2.2% in order to have a free health care system! Let’s put that into perspective: out of an 800 dollar biweekly paycheck, 2.2% is about $17.60. $17.60 coming out of your paycheck so that way children living in poverty can seek the medical attention they require? Or if you really don’t have the capacity to look at it in a way that isn’t self absorbed, you can go to the doctor an not drown in $600 medical bills! Yay!

And free college? Free isn’t really what we’re looking for here, but affordable is more realistic. The average 2016 college graduate has $37,172 in student debt which is six percent higher than the previous year. The Harvard Crimson published an article in 1984 called “Tuition and Fees will Rise to 14,100; Increase of 7.2% Lowest in a Decade”. That still sounds like quite a bit of money, right? The minimum wage in 1984 was $3.35; with inflation this would roughly equate to $7.51 today. Today, the cost of attendance at Harvard University is $60,659 with a national minimum wage of $7.25. To pay off school, without interest you would need to work a total of 4,208 hours in 1984 or 8,366 hours today. So us demanding that our education fees are less cumbersome isn’t because we are selfish, it’s because even after obtaining our ridiculously expensive educations, we are still the most unemployed generation. Finding a job after schooling proves to be incredibly difficult and 44% of graduates are stuck doing low paying, minimum wage labor. It’s fine, throw my degree in with my other participation awards!

If my numbers sound far fetched:

http://www.harvard.edu/

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1984/3/20/tuitio...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2015/05/11...

https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-stat...

http://taxfoundation.org/article/details-and-analy...

4. Political correctness is an obsession

While Donald Trump’s campaign has people roaring about the excitement of a politician that wants to do away with political correctness, we millennials are holding our stance on this movements importance. Obsessed with the idea of conserving some sort of respect for the people around us, the fight to maintain political correctness is clearly more than just a statement, it’s a fixation. Why do we care so much about trying to avoid offending someone with our thoughts? Have you ever considered that maybe it’s because not everything your mind wanders to should be spoken? Maybe when we confront you for calling that transgender woman “it” it is because our small, incompetent minds are so addiction prone that we are brainwashed by the liberal media, or maybe it’s because we have some semblance of respect the beautiful woman that bleeds red. I sincerely apologize if I correct you for using gay as an insult, it is probably the part of me that was taken over by society’s idea of how I must feel, or it’s the part of me that welcomed my best friend with open arms when she finally found the courage to come out to me. Please, if I make you feel bad for calling a Muslim man on the streets a terrorist simply for the turban on his head, inform me after I shake his hand and apologize for the behavior of the masses.

As a politically correct, feminist, millennial, I refrain from using generalizations. I would like to be clear that no, not all millennials are self aware, caring, passionate human beings, however, if the insults that have been thrown at our generation are all true I am incredibly proud to be an entitled narcissist with a large ego, little drive, and a lot of attitude. The truth behind these generational stereotypes? Every generation has been criticized, each generation before ours had been called selfish and entitled and naive. Doing a study about a generation in their youth is going to result much differently than studying each generation at an older stage of development. We are young, and free, and proud of the way we were raised. Personally, I feel incredibly honored and privileged to be part of the “worst generation yet.”