What is my generation defined by?  By it’s tenacity, and it’s want for change.  It’s aided by our confidence, provided by our parents.  What does this mean?  What problems does it create?  A variety, and painful ones at that.  Does that mean we can’t be successful, or that we complain more than other generations?  

My generation (I’m 28 I remind you), was brought up to change the world.  To save the whales and rainforests, cure AIDS, beat cancer, and establish full fledged equality.  To do so we were told to go to college and get a degree, because without one we would be unable to pursue our dreams or get a decent job.  Thus we accrued debt like our parents accrued mortgages.  

Then we attempted to pursue our dreams, and save the rainforests, or we tried to get the jobs to learn how to cure AIDS.  Then we learned that there wasn’t enough funding in the world for us all to do that, so some of us got other jobs.  Jobs to pay the bills, which often resulted in us going into positions we were over educated for.  This created a large pool of dissatisfied workers who knew they were smarter than their boss, or more capable.  Many times they were even told by their superiors that they knew they were smarter than them.

Many didn’t get jobs at all.  They then moved back in with their parents who were paying mortgages.  These parents started to get nervous.  “What happens if my child doesn’t get a job?  Will I have raised a slacker as a kid?  Obviously they’re not trying hard enough.” they think.  Then they start to complain about their children at work.  Sometimes to the others in my generation who simply got a job to pay the bills.  

That leaves even more young people feeling suddenly disillusioned about life.  They had been brought up around totally different values and ideas.  Now my generation is being shunned by the same people who told them to believe in the world.  What our parents were really saying was believe in us.  Well, I’m here to say we still believe in you.  You just can’t stop believing in us.  We believe in you.  We want to make this world a better place.  You can’t choose to stop putting in the effort now.  We’re here.  We’re educated, and we want to make a difference.  USE US.  Don’t let our talents and abilities go to waste.  Don’t assume we don’t know about the way the world works.  If we don’t, talk to us.  Explain to us why.  Don’t just stop thinking that since we’re young adults it means you no longer have to care about teaching and educating us.  

Does this mean we’re over-confident?  Perhaps we’re just confident.  Perhaps we haven’t lost our passion.  Perhaps we were taught that this is the way to make things happen.  Look to our educators.  Don’t simply blame us for being over-confident, entitled, and a generation of complainers.  We were taught to believe in the world, and to believe in you.  

Where would we learn to complain from?  Perhaps the Internet, or perhaps our educators and our parents.  Where would we learn to feel entitled?  From our educators.  How could a whole generation have too many people feeling entitled?  Where would that come from if an entire generation started doing it?  It surely couldn’t be genetics, it must from those who raised them.  Where would we learn to be confident?  From our parents and educators.  They taught us to be confident.  Is this bad?  I would vote no.  

To blame us for our failures is blaming a generation for something you helped to create.  This means you must take part of the blame, OR you can simply learn the attributes we’ve developed and learn to use them and interact with them.  You can learn to not discriminate against another generation, a younger generation, simply because they’re different.  Simply because they don’t share the same immediate values that you do.  And if we don’t share those values, well, that sounds like it’s time for us all to have a large family discussion about that fact.  Treat us like equals and we’ll do the same.  I dare you.