"That'll be $0.89 cents."
I was at the post office. I took out my card to pay for the stamped envelope.
"Why do you people need to pay for a card for everything?!" the woman screeched at me. "It's only 89 cents!"
I stared at her. Swiped my card. And left.
I'm a 23-year-old white recent college grad. I live in an area with a lot of universities. This woman was probably in her mid-fifties and was clearly over me and the direction America's youth was headed.
But why would I have cash? Why would I carry change around? All of my money is in the bank. I keep all my money in one place so I know how much money I have. What's so complicated about that?
There's been a building tension between the older generation and the new. Millennials are just entitled. They protest in the streets and demand things they don't deserve. They "pussify" America with their political correctness. They cry like babies for their "safe spaces."
Really?
Most of the people I know my age are working three jobs. I just had coffee with a friend who's working six, three of which involve teaching English as a second language at three different schools.
She's white and is constantly aware of her position as a white person teaching English to largely Puerto Rican and Black students.
She's also an activist. She works to educate herself as to why when she walks into a coffee shop in Northampton, she often sees only wealthier white bodies but when she goes to work in Holyoke or Springfield, that population is drastically replaced by underprivileged, underserved, underrepresented Black and Brown bodies.
It's no accident that the majority of the incarcerated in America are people of color. She works to understand why that is instead of vilifying the bodies in the street, shouting "Black lives matter."
She's not a special snowflake. She gets shit done. She knows these things are important.
Our generation is becoming more aware of gender, race and sexuality as we grow older. We learn not to say the word "retarded" because it's ableist.
So what? Why is that bad? Are we becoming less tough?
No. We are becoming more inclusive.
People want safe spaces not because they need to feel special - they need to know they are going to have support if they come out as trans or need to talk about their experience with sexual assault.
They know the rest of the world isn't kind. They've experienced it first hand. That's the point of safe spaces.
It's not about being sheltered or not "accepting the way things are." It's about physical and mental safety. It's about support. It's about teaching what is okay and what isn't.
What's wrong with that?
The millennial generation is inheriting millions of dollars of debt while getting some of the best education in the country. They are aware of the way the world works and they are demanding that it change for the better. That's not entitlement – that's progress.
Don't we want to be more inclusive? Don't we want everyone to afford to live and breathe and go to school and have the same opportunities that everyone else has?
We're not raising a generation of pussies – we're raising a generation of people who are trying to make the world put its money where its mouth is.
