Millennials: Intergenerational Excellence
When will the different generations, my similarly aged colleagues as well as those generations which came before us, bury the hatchet and finally give each other their due respect? I’ve heard the insults fly in both directions, which may harden others against change, but I think it’s time to call a truce and let bygones be bygones.
It’s an opinion that previous generations were given more concrete struggles, relatively speaking. And it’s honestly pretty incredible that they always came out on top. Hence, the world kept turning. However, while the struggles of past generations were absolutely valid, to assume that the world is “okay” now, and that fighting for a better life was a thing of the past, is incredibly simplistic. That struggle continues, and will keep continuing, until humanity no longer exists. No one knows what the struggles of tomorrow’s generation will be, but I can’t imagine wanting them to live through any of the same challenges that the current or previous generations have faced.
Indeed, we have all seen the best as well as the worst of humanity, plastered to our television screens for our viewing pleasure and despair, while the fear and reality of terrorism, both foreign and domestic, made clear to us just how terrible some people can be. The financial crisis, arguably the worst since the Great Depression, affected the job market and economy in a way that, hopefully, generations of the future will never have to experience.
While all of this was happening, Millennials were somehow giving off the impression that we were less than prepared, to put it nicely. Almost certainly, there must be a misunderstanding about what hardship and preparedness means in assigning value. In truth, a concept with greater meaning than these is that of having resilience. The resilience needed to deal with the hand one is dealt, to acknowledge one’s struggles, and to live a meaningful life anyway. Resilience is not achieved by having bad things happen to you; it is earned through getting back on your feet after being knocked down.
Indeed, even with that, there are some damaging beliefs held about Millennials that persist to this day. I won’t name them all, but the foregone conclusions that we all want participation trophies, or that we don’t want to pay our dues in our respective careers, are quite unsettling. This is especially dangerous because of the intensely broad generalizations at play and how wildly inaccurate these statements typically are.
Oddly, it seems the disconnect becomes more apparent when the word “meaning” is thrown into the conversation. To want meaning out of life, to even have the luxury of expressing that, is something no generation may have never been able to say before. Some take this as a sign of weakness or of being unrealistic. I disagree. To want and find meaning out of work, or school, or even just life in general, is the embodiment of human achievement. To those of us who have these opportunities, a great deal of appreciation is necessary.
This article is not intended to stoke feelings of anger or bitterness and it certainly is not a jab at any generation or group. It’s only gratitude I have to express. I have nothing but the utmost respect for those who came before me. They quite literally paved the way for the success I have in my life today, and deserve much of the credit for the world we all get to live in. If others in my generation don’t share that same perspective, they are simply misinformed.
However, it is with certainty I can say that the generations we identify with are in fact artificial dividers, and they have less basis in truth than most people realize. To judge a person’s value only off when they were born, or what what generation they belong to, is shortsighted and wrong. Similarly as it seems wrong to judge a person or group of people only off what they have been through, we must also acknowledge their persistence in overcoming those obstacles.
People judge, whether they realize it or not. It’s in our DNA and culture and so won’t be going away any time soon. That being said, wouldn’t it be better to make decisions based on something that actually matters, like an individual’s character or values, instead of the artificial labels we use today?
