An Open Letter to My Fellow Millennials
Dear Millennial Generation,
There’s lots of debate about when our generation started, and I’m not sure that’s going to be resolved anytime soon. But Wikipedia lists it as those of us born in the early 80’s through 2000, so that’s what I’m going to go by. That places me in the early-ish days of the Millennial generation (I was born in 1986).
But I don’t feel like I’m part of you. Not really. See, you’re not growing up. And while I don’t feel like an adult yet, I don’t feel like I fit in with you either. And the older I get, the more I feel I don’t belong. Just last week this resignation email, full of hashtags and insults, went around the web. And instead of condemning it, we called it “the best” resignation letter. And you know what, that’s not OK. The story continues however, as the author of the email gave an interview to Noir CPA. When asked why she said “I was thinking of myself. I was saying my truth.”
I’m all for speaking your truth. I do so three times a week here on this blog. But that’s the thing, it’s on my blog. I don’t “speak my truth” in a professional setting to my boss and coworkers. There’s a time and a place for everything, and that’s not it. And if speaking your truth is tossing out personal insults, you might want to think about how publically you’re saying those things.
I don’t mean to pick on the author of the email, but its indicative of a problem in our generation. I wanted to say it’s because we’re selfish. But, we’re pretty charitable as a whole so I don’t feel like that’s it. It’s more of we’re incredibly immature and vain. We think of ourselves and what makes us feel good. We want to stand out, even if it’s in a negative way. We’re so desperate for the “grown ups” to pay attention to us we’ll do anything.
It’s time to realize that some of our expectations aren’t realistic. We’re not going to come out of school and rocket up the corporate ladder to be CEO at 35. We’re going to have to work jobs that we, gasp, might not like and might not find fulfilling. Most of us will not be the special exception to the rule.
And it’s time we learned to be OK with that.
Sincerely,
Nicole
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Nicole is a Software Quality Engineer, music collector, and chronic project starter. In her free time she enjoys reading trashy romance novels, catching up on her game backlog, and bourbon.
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Great letter, saying a lot of what’s been on my mind lately. I might not like going to an office 8-4, but it pays the bills and I respect my employer enough not to ask for a “flexible work schedule” just because I feel as though I’m entitled to it. I think you’re right about being vain and immature, and I would add entitlement to make it a hellish trio of qualities that give all “Millenials” a bad name.
It’s always hard to know exactly where you fit in. But every generation goes through growing pains. Reminds me of GenX spokeswoman Ani Difranco’s song “generally my generation wouldn’t be caught dead working for the man/ and generally I agree with them but you have to have yourself an alternate plan./ I have been working all of my life/ and I am a patriot fighting the good fight.”
If you want to be the exception to the rule, you actually have to be exceptional. And, you know, statistically speaking, if everyone were exceptional, it’s be the norm.
There’s some shit about working with boomers that drives me insane, but their disdain for the prima donna attitude of some of the millennials is something I share with them. Of course, I’m on the cusp between millennial and gen X, since I was born in 81.
Ani DiFranco is not my spokeswoman.
Kevin Bacon is.
Personally, I’m OK with being a cog in the machine. Cogs are useful.
I’m not quite on the cusp, I was born in 1986. But I really struggle with identifying with Millennials as a demographic.
I was born in 1986 as well. My brother was born in 1973 and I’ve always thought of us as bookending a generation. He was lucky enough to grow up in the era of GI JOE, Transformers, Mr T, and Hulk Hogan as cartoons. I had Power Rangers, Saved By The Bell, and Nickelodeon. I probably value what he grew up with more than he values what I grew up with. I’m okay with that. I just think that-for me, anyway-I choose to have more in common with my immediate family than I do my generation. That’s where I feel the disconnect, I think. It’s somewhere between having the direct access to a generation that had it’s time and being part of another-due to age-that I feel I should resonate with.
My nephew is 7 and chooses to watch GI Joe, Hulk Hogan, Mr T, and Transformers cartoons because that’s what my brother grew up watching and enjoying. I’m curious to see if he feels disconnected from his generation as he grows up.
I’ve been thinking about this off and on for a while. Just googled something about being born in 86 and not feeling connected to the Millennials and found this.
That’s a really interesting idea. I’m the oldest child in my immediate family, but I was also close to my extended family (where I fall closer to “the middle.”)
I’m glad you found us!