As a 2000 baby, I often find myself caught in this middle ground of how to decide which generation I belong to. I am too young to be considered a 20-something-year-old Millennial, yet I don't really feel connected to the Fortnite-dancing, Tide-Pod-eating, teenagers of Generation Z.

I like to think of my generation as one that has the best of both worlds. However, with the best traits that define these generations also comes some of the worst traits from both generations. To be completely straightforward, there are many things that I adore about my generation, but there are most definitely qualities that I think our generation would be better off not having. In this article, I will be breaking down my love-hate relationship with my generation.

Why I love my generation:

To start off on a good note, I am going to explain one of the traits that I think makes my generation pretty great - that being our general acceptance to people of all backgrounds. Now of course, there are other generations that can say the same thing, but what I think makes this trait unique to us is our normalization of cultural, racial and religious differences.

What I mean by this is that when there's a group of people that all have similar backgrounds, such as white or Christian, and someone of a different background, such as being black or Hispanic, becomes a part of this group there's no big discussion or celebration over this event, it's just a normal occasion.

A personal example of this idea is when at the start of fall semester, I joined VASA, the Vietnamese American Student Association. I joined with two of my friends from high school, who are both Asian, and at the first general body meeting, I walked in the room of about a hundred people of Asian descent being one of the few non-Asian people in the room and the only black person in the room.

I myself didn't care one bit, and the best thing about VASA is that no one else cared either. I have come to be good friends with many people in the club and officers on the board, and no one has made it a big deal about me being the obvious outlier of the group.

To be clear, I didn't expect anyone to reject me solely because of my race, but at the same time, I loved the fact that no one threw a whole parade celebrating this "momentous event of racial inclusivity." Anyone who knows me knows that race, religion, ethnicity etc. don't really mean anything to me; It's the character which someone creates for themselves that means the most to me.

As much as I love the fact that our world is becoming more equal and fairer, I also have a disinterest in those who use racial equality as bragging rights. It's a great thing that universities are giving more opportunities to minorities, but at the same time, the over the top bragging of this growing equality should not be branded across a school's image but should be treated as a simple, normal thing.

I believe that my generation excels at treating racial, religious differences as normal occurrences. It's our ability to not only tolerate different people but also have the ability to treat them as nothing special.

Why I somewhat hate my generation:

Now, of course, each generation has the own set of problems that may not apply to everyone, but with my generation, there is one issue that I believe is accurate. That is our growing preference of style over genuine substance. This is seen most overtly in social media.

Although social media has become a valuable tool in this era, it has also been used as a platform for ridiculous displays of trolling. People like Lil Tay, Woah Vicky, Jake Paul, and a plethora of other social media "icons" have built makeshift careers out of trolling people and putting on a show ridiculous antics for no reason other than getting the most views possible. This problem is also evident in the current state of our music industry.

Rappers, such as Lil Pump or Lil Xan, are gaining an unprecedented amount of fame based off making songs about taking drugs and almost nothing else. They are able to hide this lack of substance and variety through catchy lyrics and likable beats. Now I'm not saying that there's anything inherently bad with liking one's style or outward persona, but the main issue occurs when society values sheer style over actual substance.

My generation, sadly, is continuing the pattern of paying more attention to how a person is saying something than what they are actually saying.

My final thoughts:

Like I said before, being born during the turn of the millennia has its problems when deciding on what to call myself. I'm not really a millennial but I'd like to think that I have a little more sense than my Generation Z counterparts. Nonetheless, each generation comes with its own quirks that can be defined as good, bad, and somewhat in between, and my generation is certainly no exception.