Countless videos sweeping social media have accused the "millennial generation" of being "just existing", "not willing to put in the work" and "disrespectful"

What is a millennial?

Time Magazine pegged millennials as those born 1980-2000.

As a 19 year old, I fall into the center of this category of "millennials". Personally, I feel a lot of disdain for the type of people they are all describing. There are people everywhere in our country that fit that description. However, the conundrum is, the age of the people they are describing is not just these sixteen to twenty-somethings. People have been lazy and felt entitled much longer before us "millennials" came along.

As I printed out my time sheet from my second job, that is supposed to be part-time, I realized, from the shifts I picked up, I had worked 40.5 hours. This is on top of my 7am-3:30pm, Monday-Friday job. That's 2 full time jobs with a half hour of overtime. I've sacrificed too much time with my family, the people I love and personal time to have any self-righteous elder remove any chance for me to feel any complacency for the work I've done. If we aren't willing to put the work in, then why do me and my friends work so much in the summer and during the school year to pay for our education? Granted, there are people in our age group waiting for handouts, but do you honestly think there weren't any people in your generations doing that?

Remove your superiority complex.

Recently, a middle-aged man said something to me that caused a realization for me.

"You millennials all need your participation trophy," he said.

This made me realize that I've never requested, asked for or even expected a trophy of participation or any recognition for being part of anything. Especially in junior sports. Did we ever ask for a participation trophy at the end of a season? No, our parents/the adults did this.

So, I would like to pose the question, are the millennials asking for a trophy for everything, or do you want us to be recognized for things that don't matter?

Our generation is well documented.

No other generation has had this much of their lives written down and photographed. You see all the "lazy" people more in our generation because previous ones simply couldn't tell as many people what they are doing. These people fitting the millennial description have been here before we were born.

Language changes. Cultures grow.

If you're bent out of shape about the younger generation's use of the term "bae", then you're just becoming an old and abrasive, bitter person. Words are made, changed and used. It's a result of the fast-paced communication era we are in. Telling someone they are "before anyone else", has just been shortened. Just let people be. This term is just a cute and harmless way to refer to people. There are bigger problems than young people telling people they love that they are "before anyone else".

You can say what you want, but please don't generalize.

As a hardworking and self-motivated person that fits into the age gap of millennials, I would like to ask that you don't throw all of us into a category. Stop being negative and see us millennial-age people just trying to make our way in this world.