Lazy, self-centered and entitled; these are the words you use to describe the Millennial generation, and yet, you deny us the opportunity to prove you wrong every day. If you think we are so lazy, then why not give us the opportunity to start working without 10 years of experience so that we can gain some experience toward the careers that actually require it? If you find us to be so self-centered, then why do you crush our attempts to fight for the rights of those who are different from us, in race or in gender or in sexual orientation? If we are so entitled, then why is it that you look down on those of us who do not pursue the college education we cannot afford?
It is time you realize that we are not entitled. We just refuse to take a backseat in the writing of our own history and we refuse to accept that this country is not ours. It is time for you to recognize that there is a difference between self-centered and selfish, and that, yes, as a generation, we are self-centered. We are focused on ourselves as unique individuals. We openly celebrate our rarity and revel in what makes us special, but we do not elevate ourselves at the expense of those around us.
Most importantly, you need to understand that Millennials are not lazy. We are just tired. We are tired of our opinions being denied and dismissed because we are “young and stupid.” We are tired of the school systems that crushed our creativity and stifled the natural process of learning. We are tired of paying the economic price for mistakes that previous generations made. We are tired of being at war. We are tired of being told to sit down and shut up because “we will change our minds once we start paying taxes.” Most of all, we are tired of begging you to listen.
So instead, we are forcing you to listen. We are flooding your Facebook pages with paragraphs on the issues that we think matter. We are creating music and art the way we want to create it, even if you think it is “just noise” and even if you find it offensive.
So you can laugh at our decisions and convince yourselves that we will “come to our senses,” that we will give up on being “idealists” and start living in the real world, but this is the real world. It is our real world and it is different from yours because we are shaping it, just as your shaped your own. And you did shape your own. You shaped it in pickets and protests, boycotts and sit-ins. You took your own youthful idealism and you used it to create a better America, an America more based on civil rights, equality and peace. Now it is time that you let us do the same, even if we do it in a different way, a way more compatible with the technological age.
Our world is global, it is active, it is accepting and tolerant and it insists on making a GPA above a 4.0 because that is who we are as a generation. You had your America. You built it with your own two hands and we honor you for that. Now, let us have our turn and do not judge us for every decision we make.
