Whether you belong to the Millenial generation, baby boomers, generation X ,or Z, it's important that stereotyping is understood as an absolute joke when it comes to labeling someone based off of when they were born.
I, for one, have been slapped with the "Millenial" label multiple times in different walks of my life. But the real problem is, I've been falsely labeled a Millenial based on false pretenses before they got to know who I am as an individual. It's quite frustrating actually.
"We don't expect too much from Millenials," was something I was told the day I walked into a job interview. I couldn't help but laugh and shrug it off because, let's face it, myself as a millennial in the economy that the baby boomers came to deteriorate, and Generation X came to obliterate, needs the money. So what did I do? I busted my ass. I did as I was told. I focused on every task until not only completion but perfection. Did I do this because I was called a Millenial? Nope, I did it because that's the kind of work ethic I was raised to have.
The problem is, people are too quick to judge certain millennials. I will admit, some people in my generation can be labeled as entitled, lazy, arrogant, and some are just outright worthless. But so were quite a few kids from the generations before us.
They struggled to find jobs that suited them. They struggled to make ends meet. They struggled to put food on the table for their kids because they didn't have the knowledge or the abilities to perform at jobs they probably shouldn't have been given. They don't live in fancy houses, own fancy cars, have a corner office with a view, or have expendable income.
But, all generations will have those types of people. Baby boomers had them, Generation X had them, Millenials have them, and Generation Z will have them too. It's a fact of our society. Not even socialism can fix that.
Every generation has these types of kids in the stage that the Millenial generation is at. Every generation has the certain types of people.
They call kids in my generation hipsters. They called those very same types of kids hippies in the 70's. You know the kind. Wears dingy clothes, doesn't act in the most professional way in the traditional sense of the word. Has long hair, smokes too much grass, and is more focused more on the beauty that is the world around them than the essence of capitalism. Sound familiar?
The funny thing is, most of those people that I've met which fit the bill of that description, are actually some of the most kind-hearted, least judgemental people you'll ever meet.
They'll shake the hand of a homeless man and give him most of their sandwich they just bought. They'll still smile and wish someone a good evening even knowing fully that they were just left less than a 5% tip on a 100 dollar tab that they worked really hard to provide them with the best service they could after working 12 hours waiting on a hundred other people.
All while, someone from the older generation will laugh at the man on the street corner and call him a bum from the comfort of the leather seats in their car that they can easily afford two of, while they hug their wallet tightly before setting it on their bedside table, smiling about that 3% tip they left, before they shut their eyes, and sleep like a baby.
We could go on and on about the negative aspects that occurred during Generation X's time. The rise of opioid addiction, the struggle of adapting to technological advances, and addition to corruption in our government.
But the funny thing is, Millenials will never be the first ones to jump on another generation for any sort of thing that occurred during their time. We understand that our society is comprised of all different types of people. We won't slap labels on people for just being people.