The First Wave Of American Millennials Turn 30 & Why Our Generation Will Never Say Die
May 4th, 2011 • Personal Writing, Positive Projections
“We’re going to do the impossible, we’re going to make it beautiful, and it’s got to stand up.” – Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder – Perhaps a new generational rally cry?
This year I turn 30 and so does the rest of the first wave of generation Y, Millennials, or the Echo Boom depending on which media buzz term you’d like to reference.
Over the years I’ve paid special attention to how my generation is perceived and presented by our collective elder media folk and speculate, as likely any new generation coming of age might think, that we might still be a bit misunderstood. Maybe I can shed some light on our collective mystery to all of you whose generations have come before ours.
The Mysterious Millennials
Although I can’t speak for my entire generation I feel confident I can speak for a whole lot of us. And I am aware of the fact that I speak from a uniquely American point of view knowing our country and culture certainly doesn’t represent the world in it’s entirety.
The Children of Diversity
I’m going to be bold enough to say we’re the first American generation of true tolerance. And we go even beyond tolerance into a realm of celebrating each others unique differences and individualities.
We are the generation that grew up with single parents. Or our parents were divorced. And if our parents weren’t divorced our best friend’s parents were. Our friends were adopted, refugees, immigrants, rich, poor, middle-class, Christian, Muslim, Jewish or more so than ever the religiously unaffiliated. And came in every color, shape, size, and level of nerdy-ness we could imagine. We didn’t mind because Sesame Street, our parents, and the Berenstain Bears taught us that our differences didn’t matter and that we were all the same kids on a playground trying to get picked for the right kickball team. We were the little people passing notes back and forth to each other in class worrying about who had a crush on who while our parents chased each other up the corporate ladder. We learned about the civil rights movement, about women fighting for their right to vote, about decades of wars that didn’t make sense when we already knew our differences couldn’t be something worth fighting over.
Boys & Girls with Too Many Toys & Too Much TV Time
Our generation devoured and still continues to devour media. We beat all our Nintendo games. We watched way too much TV. Sitting for hours on end watching our programs like: ALF, The Cosby Show, Doogie Howser, Double Dare, Family Ties, Growing Pains, Mr. Belvedere, The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, 3-2-1 Contact, Reading Rainbow, Roseanne, Saved By The Bell, This Old House, Wild America, Webster, and of course – The Wonder Years.
And for every hour we spent on the TV we put in our time in the movie department too. We watched some good ones like: Back To The Future, Batman, Big, Dead Poets Society, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Field Of Dreams, Flight Of The Navigator, The Karate Kid, License To Drive, The Never Ending Story, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Revenge of the Nerds, Risky Business, Short Circuit, Stand By Me, Top Gun, Weird Science, – and of course the first film I saw in a theater – Superman.
We saw the Space Shuttle Challenger explode on TV. We played flashlight tag, jumped on trampolines wearing Zubaz, and ate pop rocks. We had pink Skip-Its, Barbie Dolls, and G.I. Joes. The boys among us collected thousands of sports cards, which still fill albums that live within boxes deep inside our childhood bedroom closets. Our cats, dogs, gerbils, hamsters, rabbits, parrots, and goldfish were all subject to kiddy torture, dress-ups, and “science experiments.” We all lined city streets for 4th of July parades, fireworks, and ran around state fairs wearing hyper color shirts and pin-rolled up pants. We blared our tape decks rocking out in Starter Jackets and Nike’s while playing in the rain and eating Pizza Hut before TGIF.
The Olympics and Michael Jordan inspired us. We all knew not to take candy from a stranger. And we also knew we shouldn’t eat apples from strangers on Halloween because they may contain razor blades. Oh, and neon was awesome.
Everyone actually thought America’s Funniest Home Videos were funny. And we still occasionally catch a late night rerun after our now dwindling drunken escapades. College was a long time ago already. After all we’re 30 now and can’t party like we use to.
The Generation of Awareness
During the 1980’s and 1990’s we were kids. We had fun and we had our knocks too, but maybe one of the most important things that defined our collective youth was our awareness.
We knew what was going on. And not just in our own homes, but in our friend’s homes, and we knew what was happening around our country. We knew when there were droughts in farm fields in the South or massive snowstorms on the East Coast, or an earthquake in Candle Stick Park. We knew about Apartheid in South Africa and Dolphins being killed by tuna nets in the Pacific. We knew about global warming in elementary school. And that other kids in 3rd world countries didn’t get to live like we did. We saw the Berlin wall come down and knew what the Exxon Valdez did. And we cared about it. We internalized it and wanted to figure out our own ways to help. We knew that the world’s problems weren’t necessarily our own, but just by knowing about them meant we should at least try in some way to do something about them. We planted trees on Earth Day after pencil fighting sessions during Italian Dunker and tator-tot lunch hours. We drank cartons of chocolate milk that held the faces of missing children. And you all still can’t figure out the disconnect? Knowing too much when you’re too young – that is our collective story.
We Are The Realist-Idealists – The Realist Part
Our generation does not want what yours did. And we’re not even as close to naive as our grandparent’s generation was in believing there is such a thing as the “American Dream.” It’s a beautiful thought, but we already know that striving for a perfect life, in a perfect house, while trying to force your children to be perfect too only causes them to do drugs and listen to absorbent amounts of rock n roll all while believing getting high will somehow make their own problems go away because it’s ‘peace-love, and groovy man.’
We don’t trust big corporations. And the ‘great recession’ hammered the final nail into our parent’s collective career coffins. Turns out that system never really cared about you and we’re smart enough to realize it doesn’t give a shit about us either. It’s sad to see mothers who broke glass ceilings into rooms full of already broken mirrors. It’s kill or be killed in the corporate world and we’ll quit your shit job for a $1,000 raise somewhere else without a 2-week notice (and we’ll take the fucking stapler with us and sell that shit on Ebay). There is no such thing as corporate loyalty anymore and that door swings both ways. Look that up in your urban rap dictionary, #beyatches. All you 40-year-old middle managers need to stop crying about how Millennials don’t care or know about the value of hard work. Most of us don’t try to hide from the truth as much as you do. In the corporate world we’re all whores to overpaid board of directors with golden parachutes so stop acting like you can’t see the elephant in the room. If you always wanted to be an artist you should have went for it instead of taking out your weak level of authority on me. We don’t want the same thing as your generation did for our work-lives and we’re not going to play the same game either. There are some of us who like our corporate jobs, but that’s only because we like our co-workers. Don’t fool yourself into thinking anyone cares about Excel, Powerpoint, or Salesforce.
We definitely don’t trust banks and our governmental leaders publicly piss on each other waiting for their turn to pass the blame for whatever the current political flair up might be so they can stay in office long enough to keep the killer health benefits and the 80-G’s a year to eat in the private dining clubs on the Hill while screwing an intern or the friendly gay down the street. I’m sure in their hearts they care about our country, but not anymore than they care about their own trust funds.
Don’t even get me started on advertising. Nice try, but we’re not in your demographic anymore. Funny is still funny, but I ain’t buying your mini-van because it’s a swagger wagon. All you account planners out there might as well label us as, the “untouchable” generation.
We are realists that can spot a lie a thousand miles away, but we are not jaded even when the lies are only coming from a foot away. We know what’s going on and we’re not happy about it. You didn’t know we were going to end up here either. But, you’re old now and most of you have given up. You’re hoping the stock market doesn’t totally collapse once the world’s oil runs out or your social security check dries up before you’re dead. You worked for something right? We get it. Remember we’re the generation that knows what is really going on. We see what you were trying to do and failed, but we still really appreciate that you read us books at night when we were kids and paid for all our years on sports teams and music lessons.
The world is fucked up and life is not fair. It always has been and always will be. But the difference is that this time it might be for real. Our environment is in such a bad place everything could collapse and not just your bank account, but our whole ability as a species to live. I have personally stayed up entire nights thinking about who I’d have to kill just to stay alive in a world that can no longer support most forms of life. That’s heavy shit to deal with when you’re also still (borderline) trying to please your parents, grandparents, girlfriend, boss, and friends, while also still trying to appear to be a somewhat normal functioning member of this ‘great’ nation of ours. And you’ve got 5 blogs and 6 Twitter accounts to update daily with a dog to walk every fucking night too. Oh, and you still need to figure out what non-GMO foods you can eat or decide which one of the 17,000 different kinds of toothpaste to buy. Really? How can there be so many kinds of…. EVERYTHING. How did we get here?
I dare say our American Y-generation has acquired a type of pressure never before experienced in our species. We are no longer just responsible for ourselves, our own families, our own towns, states, or even the whole country. But, we are responsible for the entire global industrial revolution’s fuck-ups, for our already aging parents, and for that tiny space inside all our brains for our now still imaginary children’s children. The greater our privilege was growing up the greater our responsibility is now and as American youth it would be hard to argue we didn’t all grow up privileged in most ways that count. I can’t be the only person of my generation who has actually shed a tear imagining the world my own grandchildren could inherit.
I know you’re thinking, “Dang, these kids are a bummer and cold.” Nope. Not cold or jaded – we’re just real and we know what is going on. Life’s a bitch and we’re not afraid to call it as we see it. Some of us still don’t speak out our truths, but we certainly know and think about them.
We Are The Realist-Idealists – The Idealist Part
Now for the rainbows and kittens. Oh, man, for all the coldness and cynicism you might detect from myself and my fellow echo boomers we’re all still the children of hippies and the grandchildren of the generation of real values. We got heart for miles. I think if we all thought we could make a decent living at it we’d all work for non-profits. Most of my closest friends are already nurses, therapists, teachers, firemen, artists, lawyers (the good kind), organic farmers, or baristas helping drown out our collective sorrows.
You’d be hard pressed to find a single young American person today who doesn’t in some way want to try and help make the world a better place.
Some of us haven’t yet found our own way to make an impact, but we’re trying. And we’re trying to do it at the same time that we’re trying to make a life for ourselves too. Finding the time to volunteer for a good cause or dedicating ones life to a peaceful mission shouldn’t need to feel like such a struggle, but we all know how hard it is out there right now to just get by. Yet, even in the downturn the beat goes on and positivism exudes from my people.
Everywhere I look and turn my fellow youth are making it happen in the most honorable way. We are the generation of genuine idealism. We know we can make a difference because we already are.
We can inspire you to rejoin the cause.
Maybe because our generation grew up with a bit of over-awareness we also gained a little extra wisdom too. When you grow up learning about and understanding pain and suffering in places a million miles from your own playground you know from a very young age how we’re all really connected in the end. There is no such thing as ‘us’ and ‘them’ we’re all just ‘us’. And it’s not even just ‘us’… it’s endangered animals, tropical rain forests, ocean waves, and tiny bits of energy swirling around the universe from atom to atom into infinity. There is awe behind it all and we are moving it forward from within it.
A modern gentleman knows that conversations about money, politics, and religion are all topics best left for private affairs and I know my generation is as much of a mixed bag when it comes to any side of those coins as any other generation before ours. However, the wisdom I’m referring to taps into something that transcends dinner party banter.
Perhaps it is my own uber-idealism at play here but I truly believe the youth of the world today will help get us all back home. And not back to the ‘American Dream’, but just back to the dream of being able to live a happy life while doing right by other people and the Earth along the way. Right now – as in right now – there are young people leading actual revolutions against decades of tierney in countries around the world. The revolution of our American youth might not be as visible, but it is happening.
Young people are moving away from corporate jobs and starting their own small businesses. We are buying less stuff and interested in living more simply. We are paying down our debts. We are learning where our food comes from and what the real cost of industrialized farming is. We are seeing ourselves in relation to our impact on the Earth and where our energy comes from. We ride bikes. We are spending our money more wisely and looking for quality over quantity. We are designing better more eco-friendly products and questioning what services we really need and why. After seeing a lot of our buddies, older brothers, and sisters lose their houses in foreclosure we’re not about to make that same mistake. We’re waiting to get married because we’re the generation of divorce and know what that fallout means.
Everyday some portion of our individual energy goes towards thinking about and actually doing something better. Making things better is a process and takes time. We’re trying to be patient. Even if you can’t see it yet I want you to know that my generation is solving real and serious problems everyday.
Basically, we fucking rule and we’ve got so much soul you’d cry your eyes out if you only knew how much we care. But, hey, we’re not trying to win medals over here, most of us are humble kids even though we post a lot of random self-promoting shit on our Facebook pages. We’ve all got at least one special someone to try and impress, and just because we care doesn’t mean we need to be boring.
Love Life
How could I make broad and general sweeping statements about an entire generation of people without including a cornerstone of human existence? Oh, snap. It’s time for the millennial love tutorial.
Who really knows? Statistically we’re more single players than not. Yeah, we’ve hooked up. Yeah, we’ve been in a love once, twice, third times a charm. We’ve been cheated on. We’ve tried not to cheat. We’re looking for the sparks, the stability, the chaos, and the moments of silence and understanding. We carry all our fears and past experiences with us. We are just as vulnerable as any other person at any other time that has come before us. And we are either looking for, open to, hiding from, scared of, not ready yet, fooling ourselves, too selfish, or just content enough to know what happens next. Life isn’t static and neither are we. Marriage is amazing and awesome, except when it isn’t. Being single is awesome and amazing, except when it isn’t. Our friends and family help guide our thoughts in life and love and our hearts tell the truth if we choose to listen.
Maybe some things are a matter of destiny that someone like me shouldn’t be commenting on; no matter how hard I try I will never fully understand love, because matters of the heart aren’t things that are designed to be understood from a place that can be written.
I can say this from a completely personal place – my grandparents, both the living and the dead, inspire me in ways I’m not sure I fully understand. Their commitment to each other through 50 years, 60 years, 65 years and on, go beyond my imagination. Living my own life to the age of 65 will be a miracle – having someone else there with me and me with them that long seems as abstract as space travel and being described colors I’ve yet seen. That kind of connection, and maybe even more that kind of commitment, hits me so hard it feels like I’ve gotten the wind knocked out of me.
Yet, despite years of turmoil growing up with divorced parents I know it was all for the best – for all of us. I know my life is better because my parents got divorced and that we lived through that reality together.
In all my relationships and interactions in matters of the heart I carry with me this duality from my lineage.
I also know those moments of the unimaginable joy in being alone – totally un-tethered – completely free in the moment you feel your own heart beat while on a morning run in time with its rhythm looking to the sky knowing with certainty that that moment was created for you. Absolutely nothing can touch a moment of singular clarity. Our souls may dance in time with others, yet they are ours alone.
We are the generation of future hermits and cat ladies. We are the generation of future divorces and long storms before long-term happy endings. We are the generation of the future Happy Days re-runs. We are the generation of the soul-mated and the broken hearted. We harmonize like crickets and fireflies in deep dawn.
My generation, well, lets just say we’re complex – and it’s as simple as that.
Mysterious Millennials now and forever — special people, for a special place and time, with a special kind of love for each other and for you.
This Is Our Time
This year, in my New Year’s letter I wrote:
“For all the world’s daily dangers or despairs and for all our differences and shimmering individualities I take solace in our commonalities and shared aspirations.
All living beings possess a basic shared desire to love and be loved, to be healthy and bring health to others, to be happy and inspire happiness, to feel success over pain and suffering, to conquer fears, and to hopefully pass with wisdom, integrity, and perhaps legacy. We all wish to live well.”
In the end, maybe the only thing you really need to know about our generation is that we’re trying really hard to do the best we can with what we’ve got. We are keeping it real and we will never say die on our collective dream to live well while doing right by ourselves and each other along the way.
Some of my fellow Gen.-Y’ers might disagree with me on my thoughts here, but then again they probably weren’t really into the Goonies that much either – just saying.
(If you like my thoughts here please share them. And if you’d like to share your thoughts with me on what I’ve written feel free to reach out to me via Facebook or Twitter or send me an e-mail at: revolution(at)clarkpatrick.com)