We’re lazy. We have no desire to be successful and have a stable career; we just want to satiate our wanderlust. Our necks and thumbs will be ruined for practical use because of our repeated use of technological devices, and there will not be any Social Security for us to utilize in the future. Am I missing anything? I could go on for days about the negative stereotypes associated with Millennials (which I’m choosing to define as the generation of people born between 1980 and 2000). But there is one strong, positive attribute that we have—optimism.
According to a study on Forbes.com, 80 percent of Millennials believe they will have more wealth than their parents, although the current finances of Millennials do not support that ever happening. Another article published through Bloomberg Business cleverly entitled “No Faith. No Country. No Marriage. Still, Millennials Are Optimistic” argues that we Millennials, unlike older generations, trust that the best days are yet to come and that we will be financially stable to lead the lives we want.
Both of these articles are overflowing with negative statements about Millennials, though. They seem to argue that, even though we don’t believe in God or patriotism and we don’t save for the future, everything will work out for us in the end. In the first, I read that while we believe we will be more wealthy than our parents, most of us haven’t begun saving for retirement, nor are we completely financially independent. A lot, if not most, of us still receive financial help from our parents. The second article states that Millennials are less likely to identify with a religious affiliation or a political party than older generations, and only 20 percent of us believe that people are trustworthy. Only 20 percent of us consider ourselves to be patriotic.
But even though we’re surrounded by these negative statistics about our generation, we’re still optimistic. Why?
Let me give you my interpretation of these articles. Yes, Millennials are less prepared for our future than our parents are/were. We, for the most part, aren’t financially stable, and we don’t like to identify with a certain group. But we’re optimistic. And to me, that’s the most important thing.
The idea of happiness is changing. Before, happiness suggested financial wellbeing, stability, and a good family life, leading to a relaxing and comfortable retirement. As Millennials, though, we are happy with less. We want freedom of choice, of location, of, well, everything. We may not be financially stable as a whole, but we believe that the nation is heading in a direction that we like. We have optimism that, even though our elders believe we are incapable of surviving on our own, everything will be okay in the end if we keep our heads up.
I’d even argue that our optimism will lead Millennials to work harder to change the world because, unlike past generations, we actually believe that we can. We are a product of our environment, highlighted by the Great Recession, 9/11, and an astounding increase in tragedies like school shootings—and we want to change it.
So, yeah, maybe we check "other" or "none" in the religious affiliation box, and maybe we don’t have any money in our 401Ks, but I believe that we millennials can make the world into a place we want to live in. And so do 80 percent of my peers.
