It would appear that every generation has its own set of flaws, its own quirks, its own social issues to battle, its own habits and values and beliefs and so forth. The baby boomers, for example, experienced the '60s for all of its flower power, civil unrest, what was known as the British invasion, and weird crime cults like that of the Manson family.

Generation X experienced the retro-craze of the '80s, and a major economic shift under Reagan from Keynesian, welfare ideals to the individualistic, to self-congratulations and self-blame ideals of neo-liberalism.

Us millennials experienced the '90s (or, if you were born in a weird year like me, '97, blurred bits and pieces of the 90s and a majority of the '00s), and recall celebrities like the Spice Girls and Bill Gates, episodes of Friends, and bits and pieces of new clips explaining war and turmoil in the Middle East.

Finally, we have moved on to Generation Z, frequently associated with everything to do with the Apple company, social media (especially the dreaded Tide Pod challenge), and, most tragically, school shootings and the controversial conversation surrounding gun control.

If you were born between the years of 1995-2000, you are, by definition, not a millennial, but a member of the new 'i' generation. For someone like myself, born in the middle of this five year period, this is very confusing. I remember much of the aesthetic aspects of the culture of the '90s, and even major world events, which didn't really start to fade out until the early '00s. I remember dial-up Internet, Troll Dolls, using AOL chat instead of social media, and I can recall the panic and chaos felt during and immediately after 9/11.

I'm not the biggest fan of technology- I'm several generations behind on the latest iPhone, and honestly, I'm still trying to figure out my 5s half of the time. I can also certainly relate to the turmoils of being a college student while being thousands of dollars in debt. To conclude, I don't really identify with either generation, but fall into some strange in-between category.

And as we all know, with the quirks and generations of every generation come major criticisms from the generation that preceded it. It appears that people seem to forget their youth pretty quickly when they grow older. Millennials, for instance, received the most criticism it seems from the baby boomers. Millennials, according to baby boomers, are whiny, entitled brats who preposterously think that they deserve affordable education and health care as well as a participation trophy for fighting for such rights/privileges. But did baby boomers forget that they're the ones who insisted we get those participation trophies in the first place while running on the soccer field?

Generation Z is no exception to this rule, and it appears that Generation Z is actually receiving the bulk of these criticisms. Depending on who you ask, Generation Z are a bunch of silly high schoolers who need to keep their noses far out of and away from politics- never mind that they're the ones being shot at. What has also become apparent to me is that some people are confusing the millennial generation with Generation Z, referring to high schoolers in 2018 as "millennials." Though this is technically incorrect, what has been shocking to me is not this assumption, but the response to the assumption from millennials.

Some millennials claim to be horrified at the thought of being associated with these tide-pod eating, protest-going "idiots," as though the generations before us, particularly boomers, did not make these same accusations.

To these millennials: How could you have possibly forgotten your youth so quickly? Did you forget that we were the ones fighting for rights such as marriage equality, for instance, while the Boomers taunted us for years before we accomplished it? Do you remember being young and passionate about something you knew should change, while simultaneously being fearful of the adults around you, the only ones who could vote, who were going to do everything that they could with their voting rights to oppose what you so desperately wanted accomplished? Did you forget that much of Generation Z are, quite literally, our younger brothers and sisters?

I refuse to remember Generation Z for a silly internet challenge gone-meme that a very, very small percentage of them participated in. I refuse to think that their voices, their values, their beliefs, are silly and ridiculous- especially for fighting for something as significant as the right to not be shot at when they're trying to get an education. Maybe it's just because I stand so close in age to Generation Z, but I think that it's more to do with the fact that I refuse to take validity away from someone just because of their youth.

Dear Generation Z, you deserve praise and encouragement for all that your generation has done and will do for society. And Dear millennials, your age is showing.