Despite what most people would have you think, being a millennial is actually pretty hard. I wouldn't say that it's worse than any other generation, but it's also not the field of roses that people make it out to be.
We face a lot of problems that no one seems to care about fixing, so this year I decided to turn to the one man who I know could do it all: Santa. Because let's be real, there's a higher chance that Santa will magically solve these issues than anybody else actually stepping up to do anything.
1. Fix the job market.
We millennials are a special breed. We were told as children that we should work hard, apply ourselves, get good grades, go to college, and then work as whatever we want. That is until the recession hit and suddenly finding a job became harder than finding a needle in a haystack; because at least in a haystack you know that the needle exists.
And it seems like rather than vote in politicians with actual plans, the older generation has decided to do nothing but blindly follow talking points and wring their hands about who caused the recession in the first place. Man, all I want is a job so that I can pay back my student loans.
2. Make life a little better for college graduates.
Remember how us millennials were told that everything would be alright as long as we worked hard and got a college degree? Well we did, and everything is not alright. Adjusting for inflation, millennials have on the greatest amount of student debt of any generation before us.
And it doesn't really help that so much of the rhetoric surrounding college debt seems to be focused on how it's our fault for taking out loans and not paying our way through college, even though it's now become virtually impossible to pay for college by working over the summer. College graduates just want to be cut a little slack and not have to move back in with their parents. Is that too much to ask for?
3. Actually, just fix the entire American education system.
It seems like people can't stop complaining about how stupid kids are these days, even though millennials are the most educated generation in American history. Yet they also act so surprised to find out that there is a shortage of teachers. I wonder, who wouldn't want to work in a career where you're constantly graded on test scores, severely underpaid, find little support from the state and federal government, and have to deal with increasingly whiny parents.
4. Get people to stop talking about cell phones and social media.
Hey, Generation X, we get it. Social media is new and cool and every young person has a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And yes, a lot of us have cell phones too. But it seems like whenever people want to talk about the problems that our generation faces, it comes back to how cell phones and social media are ruining our lives.
Maybe social media and texting are affecting the way that, we, as a generation interact with each other. But, historically, people have always used the newest and latest technology to communicate. People thought that telephones and email would ruin social interaction, and you guys seem pretty alright. And, honestly, being obsessed is a result of the phones -- if you guys had the technology of mobile devices as widely accessible back in the day as we have it now, I'm sure that your parents would have called you phone-obsessed too.
Our generation has to confront the issues of race, income inequality, climate change, and increasing political polarization, among other things. But, no, let's focus instead on how much you hate that the word "selfie" is now in the dictionary. I'm sure that's what's ruining our generation.
5. Stop blaming millennials for everything.
It seems like nowadays people want to blame millennials for everything. But to me, it seems like they're just trying to pass off their problems to the younger generation. If you use the definitions of a millennial as someone born between the years of 1985 and 2000, then that means that the oldest millennial is 30 years old. What have we been able to do so far? The only aspect of society that millennials have been able to influence as of yet is music.
So sure, blame us for the rise of Kanye. But somehow we tend to be the cause for most of America's current problems, whether it be social inequality or high unemployment. Rather than accept the fact that they refused to meaningfully deal with cultural attitudes toward race and gender, or create effective climate change legislation, or work towards a more sustainable social security system, or address the disproportionate increases in inflation vs. cost of living vs. college tuition, or find better, alternative solutions to direct involvement in the political affairs of other countries, Baby Boomers and Generation X-ers seem to have simultaneously adopted an I'll-deal-with-it-later and these-kids-are-too- selfish mentality that has left the next generation wondering how they're going to survive.
I still have faith in our generation. I have faith that our belief in the ideals that were drilled into our heads our entire lives will drive us to change the world for the better. But we can't do it without the support of previous generations which is why need them to stop blaming us and start helping us.
