I think it' s safe to say that Millennials are the most infamous generation yet. Every generation has their stereotypes, but Millennials are being constantly bashed for the multitude of stereotypes that surround them. If you type "why are Millennials so" into Google, the suggested next words are poor, liberal, depressed, and dumb. These suggestions aren't surprising; Millennials are constantly being accused of being lazy, social justice warriors, easily offended, etc. I like to think most aren't true. I would consider myself liberal, and unlike a lot of people I don't consider that a bad word. My doctor would definitely consider me depressed. But I don't go to school full time and work two jobs to be called lazy and dumb. But let's say for the most part these stereotypes are true. After all, I went to a high school with 700 people and a college with 3,500. I couldn't speak for the entire generation having only met a small amount, so maybe I'm wrong. If they are true, then why exactly are Millennials so poor, liberal, depressed, and dumb?

Millennials are poor because college is expensive. We grew up being told that if we didn't go to college, we wouldn't get jobs. In fact, multiple times I've been told that grad school is basically a necessity because everyone has a four year degree. Unlike with previous generations, having a college degree doesn't guarantee you a job anymore. You have to go above and beyond. You have to take 16 credits a semester so you graduate on time while working 15 hours a week to ensure you won't be completely in debt by the time you graduate. As this while keeping up grades so you can keep that scholarship that is allowing you to even consider affording school in the first place. Some of us can't even get jobs because employers often blatantly refuse to hire anyone from this generation. In fact, a lot of them brag about it. It's intimidating to think that after six years of school I couldn't still not have a stable job just because I was born in a specific time period.

Millennials are liberal because we are constantly bombarded with horrible news. We grew up with online news stories shared to our Facebook pages and sent to us by email. In the past, it was easier to ignore the horrible things that occurred around the world; all you had to do was not pick up the newspaper. But these days it's hard to ignore all the violence and hatred. And we're fed up. We've noticed how not much has changed in the last few generations, so we're trying to do something to fix that. But we're also young. We may not know exactly what the world needs. We're accused of not understanding politics or choosing our views based off popular opinion. And to an extent, that's probably correct. Of course not all our opinions are right, but we'll get there. Can anyone be an expert by their first visit to the polls at 18? It takes a lifetime of experience to truly understand how the world works and what needs to be done to fix it. But instead of being guided by the older generations who have this experience, we're being told our opinions are wrong without any reason besides the fact that we're obsessed social justice warriors. So the only way to figure things out is to take our views into the world and see what happens. What's important is we're striving for change; we''ll figure out the logistics in time.

Millennials are depressed because of how we were raised. A lot of us have parents who would be classified as depressed if they were born in this day and age. But they were born in a time where people were expected to repress those kinds of issues. So instead of getting help, they spent their lives raising children in a household of repressed feelings, subconsciously taking these emotions out on the children by expecting perfection and monitoring their every move. It's hard not to become depressed when your whole life you were expected to be what your parents couldn't. And then you come to find it's impossible. You can't get that dream job, go to your first choice college, or raise a family you know will be financially stable. You can't even state your opinions because they are considered invalid. Not to mention the fact that social media introduces a set of ideals for us; how we should look, act, feel. It's no surprise that suicide is the highest cause of death among college students (a fact we are told on a depressingly constant basis). There's just not a lot of hope for the future anymore.

Millennials are dumb because we are told we are. Because no one will give us a chance. Employers won't hire us, so we can't get the experience needed for higher level jobs. Kids who struggle in school aren't offered help because it's assumed that they are just being lazy. Students are turning to liberal arts degrees, because film, theater, and music industries are often more successful than the overcrowded finance, science, and math type industries. But instead of being applauded for taking a risk and doing something different, these students are laughed at for being too dumb to get "real" educations. A lot of Millennials stop trying, because they know no matter what they do, they'll be considered wrong.