Why Gen X-ers Are the Luckiest People on Earth
Boomers to the left, Millennials/Gen Z to the right. Stuck in the middle is a fantastic place to be.
When the grunge band Nirvana released Smells Like Teen Spirit in 1991, the poodle-permed and spandex wearing rockers of the 1980s must have instantly known that the days of glam metal and big hair were over.
The world had changed. In an instant, glitter was out, and grunge was in.
As a less hairy Gen X-er, I know the feeling. My favorite rock bands started to run out of fuel at the end of the eighties, and I knew that their popularity wouldn’t return anytime soon once Kurt Cobain entered the scene.
It was comparable to the experience at work — circa 2010 — when I lost my corner office with conference table, modern art, and rubber plants. That was the moment, I realized that I would always live in the shadow of the Baby Boomers — my parents’ generation — and a new generation was coming to town.
That feeling of being left behind by history.
So, perhaps it is true — what I read in the media — that I belong to a lost and frustrated middle generation. But — oh boy — was I (and they) wrong.
