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Lazy, unproductive, delusional, uncommitted, sheltered, and

S e l f   c o n c e i t e d.

Undoubtedly, this is the description you think of when ~the millennials~ cross your mind. To be absolutely precise, Millennials are the demographic cohort following Generation X.

Why is it that the older generations find it necessary to use us as society’s scape goat? I think you’re forgetting how badly things have been in the past; yet no one found it quite so necessary to brutally attack the “future leaders” as you have today.

I am not a whiny teen. I am not a hormonal senior in high school who causes drama for fun. I am an adult, going into the adult world in a few short months, and I am the one you will look to for aid when you’re old and decrepit. The fact that you find it acceptable to blame me for the problems you caused is bewildering and inexcusable. I was a child during the crash of the Stock Market in 2008. I was even younger when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center. It was you who elected the politicians who eagerly threw us into a decade long war; however, it is I who will be forced to spend the remainder of my youth cleaning up the messes you made.

It is the burden every generation carries: the idea that they need to fix the previous group’s problems. Are you aware of the unfair amount of pressure being placed on millennials? We have been told for as long as I can remember: go to school and do well, find a job you can tolerate, but more importantly support yourself; and find a job society deems acceptable.

Why is it that those who so viciously attack us get to tell us how to live our lives, what is right and wrong, and what should make us feel happy or free?

This is not an attack on the older generations.

I understand the trials, tribulations, and sacrifices you made to push us to where we are today.

I will be forever grateful for your actions.

However, this does not excuse you to walk all over me, to call me ungrateful and vain, and to then expect me to listen and follow when you tell me to.

Do you honestly believe the ones who will step into the real world in the distant future are not concerned with the state of our economy? Our planet? Our health? Our country? Yes, you may be older and wiser, but your years blind you of the plethora of capabilities millennials possess.

The qualities you view in us are mirrored, reflections of your own youthful rebellion, those years spent dreaming of your greatest aspirations, lost in a wave of bitter scrutiny from your own elders. Parents called you selfish and immature. The sting of diminished hopes is not easily forgotten, but rather pushed down deep inside and locked away, too radical to strive for your real dreams if no one else saw the use in them.

This is my plea to all of those who feel the Millennials are not capable of leading a purposeful, meaningful world. I promise you we are. I’m not promising you we won’t make mistakes, but we will work our hardest to make the world a better place: a place free of blaming younger generations for old misfortunes and a place where dreams can be followed because they’re what you love. I beg you to keep this in mind the next time you catch yourself calling millennials anything but determined.