Why Millennials are leaving everything behind

An insider perspective on the nomadic trend

M. Loo
M. Loo
Jul 10, 2017 · 5 min read

A clash of generations

A highly controversial debate has been going on about the subject of Millennials for quite some time now. Although I am a millennial myself, I’ll try to approach this in as much an impartial manner as possible. I will however use the first person plural pronoun for grammar's sake.

If you follow the debate, apparently, never before had generations so much trouble getting along or defining each other/themselves. It is very funny for non-millennials that “Some millennials are getting jobs that they like, some of them are getting jobs that they don’t like, and some don’t have any job at all.” Go figure.

There have been guides, articles on what this demographic is called around the world and don’t forget all those articles about millennials in the work place (spoil alert: a lot of them are tips on how to manage your millennial work force).

We’ve been called lazy, selfie takers, selfish and many more (some of it was said by millennials themselves). One thing everybody seem to agree on: we are narcissist and entitled. If you’re writing a piece on millennials without those two words in it, you’re not doing it right. Even if you put them there, just to go around and finish calling us earnest and optimism later like on this 2013 Time cover piece.

By now you probably notice I’ve failed miserably in my attend of neutrality. Maybe I’m lazy and didn’t try that hard after all. I do think we have a lot of issues, just like any generation that came before us. So why does everybody have an opinion and, very often, a problem with millennials? My guess is: people are afraid of change and sometimes the way we find to defend ourselves is attacking the unknown. In 1565, the advent of the printing press led Swiss scientist, Conrad Gessner, to warn that the book would overwhelm people and be confusing and harmful to the mind. I bet if everyone had a press back in the day there would be a lot of debating too.

The nomadic trend

One recurrent topic on the debate is about millennials dropping everything to go away. Do we travel because we can’t commit to staying in one place? Do we live in vans because it’s a romantic way to live without money and looks good on Instagram? Why don’t we want that highly paid job as director of whatever? Amongst a lot of lists of reasons to leave, steps to freedom and to keep the debate somewhat even, reasons why not to do it, one article caught my attention: "The meritocracy of people who leave everything to do what they love is white and masculine.” They make a pretty good point: in a job marketplace that operates under the logic of exclusion and competition, “quitting to do what you love and/or travel” is also the ultimate prize that can only be achieved by those with the same privileges that got them on top of the “tradicional job pyramid”in the first place.

Georgia and Niko from https://thepinproject.eu/ have being traveling the world for 5 years.

‘The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear’. Antonio Gramsci and then Zymund Bauman have been talking about this time for paradigm shifts for decades. Millennials were born into this so called interregnum and therefore our very concept of "everything" is also subject to change.

The concept of everything

What most articles call “everything” is financial and social security, geographical location and material things. All of those are starting to mean less for Millennials. Having a job, money in the bank, and a car in the garage are being less seen as the ultimate prize to be achieved over the years and more like elements that can serve a momentary need.

There’s an app for everything these days. Although this can be said in a mockery way, it is at some level true. For example, I talk to my parents every other day on Facetime (I'm in Ecuador and they're in Brazil). I know it's not the same, but I think is better to take time to have a caring and meaningful conversation with my family (even if on a tiny screen) than to live in the same house with a tv in each room and barely see each other for meals. Like anyone these days, me and my childhood friends have a WhatsApp group. Last Sunday one of my friends displayed his products for the first time in a street market in Australia. We got to see it and (in a way) be a part of it with the pictures and videos he sent us. So, yes, we can’t go out Friday night and have a beer together anymore. But we sure are using every tool and piece of technology to stay connected. Emotionally.

Some people are working jobs they don't believe in. They tell people to "shop till they drop" and that it'll make them happier. Some people are selling stuff they themselves don't use. Some people are filling excel sheets for a living and a lot o people are just doing activities there's already a software for. Aren't those people also giving everything up in a way? Aren't they dropping their values and beliefs everyday?

Most Millennials expect to stay in the same job for less than three years, according to the Future Workplace Multiple Generations @ Work” survey. A job is no longer like a marriage. It's more like dating. We can commit to our work and career in a more dynamic way. The internet is knocking down walls and building bridges. We are just crossing them.

So, back to all those articles on leaving everything behind, let’s all take a step back. Is our definition of “everything” the same?

Maybe we are living in a interregnum when it comes to everything . What we are leaving behind is the old. We are leaving everything that we were told mattered and would define us, but we feel it's heavy and not worth carrying. We are making way for our new everything. One we are going to discover and that can fit in our pockets and backpacks.

To all people struggling to understand millennials and what this nomadic, minimalist and vanlife trend is about: We are not leaving everything behind. We just figured out a way to carry what is dearest to us. Our friends and family go with us, we carry them in our pocket. Our dreams and values fit inside a backpack and what we are leaving behind is actually just stuff. Things too heavy to carry and that would slow us down in our journey. What we take with us is much more abundant. “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the single candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared”. This is a quote by Buddah. Maybe there is something different generations can agree upon.

M. Loo

Written by

M. Loo

“Freedom is both an idea and access to ideas.”

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