Remember when you were a freshman in high school, and all of the upperclassmen hated the freshman? And then by your senior year, it was you who looked down upon those peasant freshmen and hated them. Every year you moved up a grade in school, you always seemed to think, “Wow every freshman class just keeps getting worse, what is the world coming to?”

Well the same thing happens in regards to generations. The parents and grandparents of one generation tend to be the seniors, and we, the Millennials are currently up to bat as the freshmen.

Except we’re not just trying to pass 11^th grade Pre-Calc this time, we’re training to become functioning members of society. And by everyone else’s standards, our progress report isn’t looking Dean’s List eligible.

They assume we’re entitled and lack all sense of reality. They think we’re in for a surprise when it's time to finally pick our heads up from the 75% brightness glow of our iPhone and conquer the world as Millennials.

They wonder if we’ll ever have the work ethic that they had, or if we’ll ever reference our moral compasses that seem to be lost somewhere deep in our pockets.

They think we’re incapable of taking on the world that they’ve so miraculously built, and that we take on the mantra that “anything goes” too easily. They think we’re TOO adaptable to change, that we have no sense of sanctity anymore and that we’re losing moral values.

But all of these assumptions (if believed to be true) are all just simply shifts in ways of thinking.

Maybe our entitlement is our sense of confidence. That Millennials are trying to take on the “I will never settle for less” way of thinking. A lot of us saw what our parents had to endure during the years following the 2008 housing market crash. It was a time where money was maybe scarce and budgeting was definitely on the top of the to-do list. Maybe Millennials give off a sense of entitlement as a way of saying, “I’ll never settle for less,” because at one time, our families had to.

Maybe Millennials feel a sense of entitlement because we feel we deserve to be doing what we love everyday, even if that means working another sub-par job on the side. Maybe our sense of entitlement comes from a deep sense of passion. A passion that pushes us to choose what we love to do, not what is convenient.

Maybe our work ethic doesn’t fit into the mold of slaving nine to five, Monday through Friday; but molds into its own shape by doing tasks on the go and working for companies that we find to be morally and socially responsible.

Maybe our laziness is mistaken for our innovation. With being so tech-savvy we as Millennials are very accustomed to instant gratification. For example, in the workforce, if our boss assigns us a task that is originally planned to take 30 minutes to complete, we can improvise and finish in 15. (Keeping the quality level constant, of course.) Some say lazy, others say creative genius.

Maybe our social mantra of “anything goes” is letting more love, peace, and happiness into the lives of everyday people. Maybe our millennial mantra of “anything goes” is trying to create an atmosphere much similar to that of Planet Fitness, a judgment free zone. Maybe it creates an atmosphere in which all lives can reap the benefits of equality.

Change is nothing to be afraid of, yet so many Americans seem to be.

Throughout history, diversion from the current norm of the time has induced massive transition.

From the American Revolution and the Civil Rights Movement, to child labor laws, the cotton gin, and the Model T Ford; each change was prompted by certain people actively working toward adjustment for the future. Without them, change would have never taken place.

Millennials tend to get so easily criticized for being TOO open for change. But what other generations seemingly fail to realize is that CHANGE is a driving force in moving a nation forward.

If we look at a change in terms of capitalism, we can see that businesses who fail to adapt to change, will inevitably be left behind. A prime example of this is Kodak going bankrupt. When digital photography was coming of age, Kodak made the firm assumption that it would just be a fad and chose to ignore it. But that same “fad” was the sole factor behind their epic decline.

If we weren’t adaptable to change throughout time, we might still believe that the world is flat while driving down a dirt road in our Model T Ford. Because who wants to change to pavement and an Audi r8 anyways?

Ghandi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” And personally, I think Millennials are trying to achieve just that, and maybe without even realizing it.

So in conclusion, change is good. Change is here. Change is Millennials.