Ernest Hemingway used the term “Lost Generation” to describe his generation that wandered purposelessly through life following World War I. He saw a generation that watched its place in society evaporate without replacement, one that had seen great tragedy without preparation, one that struggled to find its place in the world. That term accurately describes our generation.

Far from being just “millennials,” we face an identity crisis much like those young men and women 100 years ago. From a young age, we have been forced to face the horrors of terrorism, covered in not just the 24/7 television news cycle but also the instant and uncensored Internet. While previous generations were not connected so closely to tragedy across the world, we know the names and faces of those that perished in Ankara, Brussels and Paris. Though my parents watched the Zapruder film on the evening news, we saw the attacks on the World Trade Center in real time while we were as young as preschoolers. As the world economy went into the greatest decline since the Great Depression, at the time, many of us were looking for middle school and high school jobs.

We have been told by our teachers, bosses and parents that there is no way to succeed without a college degree, yet the cost of getting one will leave many of us in debt well into our 30s and the significance and uniqueness of the degree is comparable to a high school diploma in the 1970s. The Baby Boomers refuse to yield their position in the world to Generation X which creates an arrested development for us. As we try to come of age today, we are told that already we needed to grow up but are shown no place to do so. As a result of all these factors and more, including our ability to access music, writing and culture from other times with such ease, many of us long for a bygone era.

So I claim the title of Lost Generation for us. But lost does not mean vanished or stranded. It means wandering. We wander in the desert, searching for our Promised Land. To each of us, this Promised Land is different. And because of this, we seem lost in a deeper sense. It is hard for us to find those that are wandering in the same way as us. But wandering is not the worst outcome for a generation.

We are not the first generation to wander. The last Lost Generation was not the first one either. There have always been generations that did not have a clear purpose and the world kept turning. I believe it is necessary for some generations to wander. It reshapes the dynamic and values that we hold. It gives us a chance to truly find what is important and what is frivolous. Unaccompanied, we can find comfort in who we are. We as a country are looking for an identity and it is the duty of those that wander to find it. To ponder as we wander, maybe that is the reason we are wandering. I guess it is cheesy to say but I hope that it is true for our generation, “Not all who wander are lost.”