The Millennial Dilemma: Episode One
Dye Hard.
~Guess who’s back?
Back again?~
Yeah so my Blog Every Day May didn’t end on some kind of grandiose final note. Kinda just faded into obscurity… Oops.
Sorry about that.
ANYWAY. I’m back, and I have a whole new series to share with you, dear Reader. You may have noticed the title, specifically the “Episode One”. That tells you all you should expect regarding frequency. I plan to make this series episodic in nature, providing one post a week for it. This will be outside of any other posts I have planned; that’s a lot, although my absence may have suggested the opposite. Again, my bad.
It’s Ramadhan okay, that’s an almost literal dry period.
As for The Millennial Dilemma, well, this is me returning to my writing roots, with pure, unadulterated storytelling. Aside from post-edits. But otherwise totally unadulterated. Mostly.
I digress. Again. So, I mentioned storytelling. The idea behind The Millennial Dilemma is that, every week, I’ll tell a story about something that happened in my life. Something interesting. Something weird. Something quintessentially youthful.
See, the reason it’s a millennial dilemma is that all the stories I tell here are of events that could only happen to a bunch of teens with no idea of what they’re doing. Or at least, they’re stories you can easily visualise with young characters in them. In every story, there will be a point of conflict between our intrepid heroes: the dilemma.
You see how this works now?
The idea for this series actually came from a conversation with my dad. For whatever reason, the conversation reached a point where my dad said the words “millennial” and “dilemma” in the same sentence. I was instantly struck with a vision for a new Medium series. As such, to honour this fatherly source of inspiration, I will attempt to put a moral of the story at the end of each post. These stories are whimsical and mildly ridiculous in nature, so Lord knows how that’ll work out…
We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, without further ado, let’s get into this week’s Millennial Dilemma.
The Blueberry Boy
This week’s story takes place in the quaint town of Oakville. Honestly, most of these stories will probably take place in Oakville, but it’s still nice to set the scene. Also, like, one of the biggest rules of storytelling. Moving on.
There I was, just sitting at the table with my laptop, when all of a sudden, my phone buzzed. It was none other than my friend Matt, the Good White Man. Now, typically, when Matt buzzes, he’s either suggesting an adventure of sorts or [REDACTED] out of his mind. Either way, messages from him are always a good time.
As it turns out, Matt was back on his hair-dye mission with renewed vigor. You see, he had recently dyed his hair a mellow white, a stark change from his natural blonde. It was a change that, though deemed radical by a few, was appreciated by many, myself included. Not only did he look capable of effortlessly displeasing an entire room full of elders, he seemed beyond happy to do so. The white hair was a symbol of youthful impulsiveness, creativity, and rebellion.
It also just looked kinda dope.
For narrative purposes, let’s take a quick look at the white-haired Good White Man:
Back to the mission. No longer content with hair the colour of his privilege, Matt had now decided on dyeing his hair a blinding blue. It was a decision based solely on whim, and it was a decision he was fully going through with. The Good White Man was reaching for all new levels of millennial, and there was nothing standing in his way.
Nothing, that is, except for one Messy Artist.
Okay so that may be mild hyperbole for dramatic effect. I wasn’t standing in Matt’s way, per se, I just wasn’t as on-board with the decision as the rest of our friends. To me, the white hair was cool and edgy, but blue was… Well, to be honest, a bit much to me.
Alright alright, hold your horses. This was just a mild disagreement between me and a friend. I only voiced my concerns with the blue hair when asked, and was respectful when doing so. Still, I had issues. After seeing a picture of the blue hair after the first dye session, I wasn’t convinced this was a good idea.
Nevertheless, I showed some support for my newly Super Saiyan God’d friend. After Matt messaged the group about an impromptu second dyeing session, I went along for the ride, and to see the change for myself. We went out, grabbed some dye, and went to perform the Tiffany transformation (yes that was a shades of blue pun, I’m smart).
While waiting for Matt’s hair to dry and for the blue to set, we discussed the dye, among other things. We sang, we laughed, we dyed happy. Our dye expert and designated mother Victoria even revolutionised the use of the fidget spinner. It was a whimsical time.
After forty minutes, it was time to see the final product.
The hair was dried, the dye was cleared away, and selfies were taken. Matt’s hair was officially blue. Is, technically.
And you know what?
I kinda like it.
And so ends the first episode of The Millennial Dilemma.
As for the moral of the story? Support your friends, because odds are they’re going to do weird shit whether you’re with them or not.
Okay, fine, that isn’t the moral of this story. If I have to come up with one, I’d say that while it’s always important to voice your opinions, it is just as important to be open-minded. Give things a chance, even if they seem strange at first. You never know what new adventure may be just around the corner.
Also, it’s fun to say you have friends with blue hair.
And that’s that.
Till next we meet,
Sarim
