Sitting in Starbucks, next to me I find two men, maybe in their late 70s, having a typical, yet loud, Thursday afternoon coffee. In between their conversations of "new" types of lean meat and the weather up north, the man in the black NRA baseball cap brought up the "average 21-year-old." Of course, this is spoken of in negative context. The other man sitting across from him, in the faded denim shorts and orange New Balances, spoke about his life as a 21 year old. He was building a house, with his own two hands. He was working fifty hours a week while building the house. Did I mention that he was building a house?

He then prompted the NRA fanatic, asking "What's the average 21-year-old doing now?" This was a rhetorical question. I knew where it was going. The answer was "Living in their parents' basement," or "Barely working" and my personal favorite, "Uneducated."

Let's dissect.

Fortunately, men at Starbucks, all these awful characteristics about millennials can be (and probably are) related. Let us start with the best one, being uneducated. Although I am not sure the exact circumstances they meant by this word, I'm going to assume that by "uneducated" you meant that our intelligence does not meet your expectation. Let's take a dive into the world of higher education. In todays world, it is soon to be unheard of to get a decent career without having at least a Bachelor's degree. So you may ask, why wouldn't you go to college?

I'll give you a hint: It's green paper.

Between 1970-1986, according to the CBO, the average tuition for public universities started at around $690 per term and rose to $2310 per term. Today's tuition cost of a public university per term averages about $9319. That could be a bit discouraging, no?

"Barely working." I cannot be sure what weekly hours classify as "barely working" but I can tell you how difficult it is working while is school. Picture this: You are a full time student, taking five classes. Speaking from personal experience, some of the first words out of your new professors mouth are how much time you must spend out of class studying and doing assignments. That amount ranges from 6-12 hours a week. Every seven days. So, you cannot just go to class and go home, because you are working during all your free time. God forbid you need tutoring.

In case you are still confused, I'll do a quick equation. Say, Mr. NRA, that you expect us to work 40 hours a week. At a job that pays $11/hour, you'll be making $440/week, $22,880 a year. Now subtract $9319 twice for each term you'll be attending a year in college. That leaves you with $4242 for all other things you can think of.

Bills?

Forget it.

Hence, why we may be living at our parents (Not in their basements though, those don't exist in Florida). To be able to focus on an education for ourselves, to be able to put everything we have into forming the next chapter in our lives and making it the best it can be.

So, New Balances and Mr. NRA, I suggest you sit down with a millennial, maybe your grandchild, and talk about how life is. Although there are the select few, the bad examples- Life is not all video games and mid-day naps, trust us.