I’ve never understood why there is always so much negativity surrounding a younger generation. Our elders always seem to have something negative to say about the way we do things. There are never any congratulations when a younger generation does something different. It’s like there is this whirlpool of hatred that surrounds anything new and it has never made sense to me.

I’m a millennial. I don’t mind being a millennial. I would actually say I’m proud to be a millennial. There’s this annoying stereotype that millennials are lazy, obsessed with technology, and we think we’re entitled. I don’t think that’s true. At all.

Millennials care. We care about the earth, we care about other people and we care about the future. People say we get offended, but I think we just don’t let anything slide. We call out the racist, the sexist, and the homophobic. We don’t sit back and justify hurtful things because “that’s how it’s always been” or “it’s traditional.” There is nothing wrong with speaking out about what you think is right or wrong, and that doesn’t mean we are just big babies.

If one thing is for certain, millennials are not lazy. I have seen friends cry tears of exhaustion and utter frustration because schoolwork can get so difficult. I’ve watched students pull countless all-nighters because we are all drowning in work. Millennials are some of the hardest working people I know and I think it’s completely unfair that our college experience is getting compared to that of older generations. College is getting harder and harder, and it feels like tuition prices rise purely because we are breathing.

The hand that millennials were given wasn’t the best one and I believe it’s time to flip a switch so that the negativity stops. Instead of constantly berating millennials for doing all they can, maybe some words of encouragement would be nice. Maybe, just maybe, the older generations should stop getting, wait for it, OFFENDED when we call out their mistakes, like being racist and sexist.

There’s a thought.

Just because millennials want higher education to be less expensive doesn’t mean they’re entitled and lazy. If older generations didn’t have to drown themselves in debt for the rest of their lives, purely because they wanted a college education, we shouldn’t have to either. We also didn’t ask to be raised in a society that makes it nearly impossible to succeed without a college degree, that isn’t our fault either.

There’s a common trend within the human race, to blame everyone else for their problems. Now, I’m not saying that millennials don’t have their issues, because we do, but so do the older generations that are constantly criticizing everything we do. Each generation has their own set of issues and mistakes, but don’t continuously degrade millennials for trying to handle the cards they were given.

We aren’t self-obsessed and out-of-touch with the “real world” because we are always on our phones, we just have this incredible communication system that allows us to talk to anyone in the world that we want. Technology is incredible to give us that opportunity, and taking advantage of that isn’t a bad thing.

Everything is looked at with a matter of perspective, and every generation looks at each other with these goggles of negativity, and that needs to be changed. This world could be such an amazing place if we all worked together, but that just isn’t happening. All of us have to look past our disagreements and our differences, because we all have to coexist on this planet, and we might as well make the most out of it.