As a junior in college and a budding adult, I have never seen a real tangible reason to continue to classify different people, especially younger people, by the generation that they were born into. Millennial has seemed to become a termed that’s as imbued with ill omen as feminist, to the point that some people are actually afraid to identify as a millennial as they do not wish to be slandered by their peers. I’m sick of this term being used as reasoning for writing off the actions of people my age, especially when it comes down to people pointing fingers as to whose fault it really is in terms of the currently horrific state of the country.

I don’t want to be too hard on Senator Sanders, now, as I feel he has done what he really meant to do, but the fact of the matter is, millennials have grown so attached to him that they seem to foam at the mouth whenever they hear any support for another candidate. Instead of really listening to reason, when Sanders dropped out of the election, millions of millennials erupted in a fiery rage that has never been seen before in recent history. I would warrant that it is due to this “demonization,” if I could be so bold, of the idea of a millennial, or the millennial generation, what some believe to be the laziest generation of people on Earth.

I’m sure you’ve heard the joke that has been circulating around on the internet for years now: An older man is telling a younger man he worked his way through college and still had enough money to buy a house, the younger man then retorts that he certainly will try to buy a house, just in the economy that the older man’s generation destroyed. Typical he-said she-said BS circle argument that goes nowhere and only seeks to create and maintain tension between not only the different classes of people but the different ages. The term millennial, while I hate to use another -ism, is ageist at its very core, which is why I’d love to be able to eliminate its usage and just revert back to young man or young woman. Seems like a waste of time and energy to maintain all this distance between people who may be a bit younger than you.

One of the many problems of my generation, however, is that we are accused of being whiners and not fixers, for the most part. We are said to think that instead of the world being our oyster, the world owes us a pearl. While this mentality can certainly be attributed to a special few, it’s just not right to create a stereotype blanket understanding of an entire generation of people just because you’re cranky and old (of course, another blanket stereotype, although in this case merely to enhance my point). And it is not like this stereotyping is only happening in New England, or Florida, or Oregon, even, it’s as systematic in this country as racism and sexism. All of these -isms plague our country, but which one proves to be the one we overlook the most? That may seem like a bit of a trick question, as cases could be made for all three, but in this particular instance, it is the belittling of the younger generations. And what does it solve, people? Jack diddly squat.