To the people who hate on Millennials,

For some reason Millennials seem to be the butt of every joke recently when it comes to laziness, ignorance, and all around arrogance. What bothers me about that is the broad name calling.

The easiest way to try and back ourselves up is to say that the older generations “don’t understand us”, but I don’t think that is the problem. The problem is the way they compare their life to ours. We have lived completely different lives based on our societal beliefs, religion, technology, and our economy. The life that our grandparents lived is nothing like that of someone who is part of the millennials. We were raised with tvs, computers, video games, and the worry of money. We were raised in a society full of sexual acceptance, personal flourish, and striving to make a difference. We are the generation whose eyes have been pried open from a young age to all of the world’s realities. I grew up in a world full of television, media, computers, terrorism, and cell phones. Our worlds have been on fast forward since the beginning, with technology going just as fast. Can you really blame us for being addicted to the fast lane when we’ve always lived there?

But something that needs to stop is the name calling and broad assumptions. I am currently in college and also working two jobs. I own a car I worked for and have been working since I was 15 years old. My parents are not paying my way through college, but I also have respect for them and what they do for me. I was not just given things as a child, but I did grow up through a computer. I heard the stories, I was taught by media, and I also listened to the older generations hate on my friends and I all my life. Alright, I know that not the people in my generation are like me, but every generation has their flaws, that does not mean they are all bad.

We were hated for loving our technology, we were hated for our relationships, our sexuality, our work ethic, and every other step we took throughout life. We took our selfies, posted statuses, used emojis, and created our own language. But every generation before us had their own quirks, their own things that the generations before did not have. It was just that now, apparently those quirks made us lazy, ignorant, and arrogant. We didn’t know how to work hard, and we were apparently given everything. We were ignorant to the whole world even though it had been shoved in our faces since day one. We were arrogant because we had things that others didn’t and we’re learning things people never knew.

I think that the other generations need to stop hating on the millennials and start to learn from us. To see the work we have to put into going to college for the amount of money we pay. The pressure put on us to “change the world” and the hatred we get for being what they made us to be. Be thankful that we are in fact willing to work so hard to get through school paying at least $20,000 a year, working 30 hours a week. We were threw into a world that you created and expect us to fix, the least you can do is to understand that the way we do it will be different than you’re way.

Love,

The ones creating your future, the Millennials