Recently, I saw a couple articles that criticized millennials for not grocery shopping as much. Another one criticized millennials for not going out to restaurants as much. A lot of blame is put on millennials for ruining things, but the sad part is — the bigger picture is being missed. Millennials don’t “ruin” things for the sake of it. Rather, the previous generations ruined the world so, in the effort to fix it, some things had to be sacrificed.
Millennials don’t avoid marriage because we want to be rebellious. It’s because weddings are expensive, and most of us have jobs that barely pay a living wage.
In addition, most of us watched our parents go through bitter and nasty divorces. The previous generations don’t take that into account. They are so quick to blame us for not being like them when their livelihood is hardly desirable.
Millennials can’t afford to buy houses due to the awful market conditions handed to us. We spend all our time and money on school and still end up in debt. Decent paying jobs aren’t guaranteed for us like they were for the generation before us. Minimum wage doesn’t support a well-being the way it used to.
I Googled “millennials” to get a solid definition but instead two articles came up judging us again.
One claims we need to stop chasing an early retirement dream, which doesn’t make sense because I’m sure all of us know the Social Security fund is nearly dried up, and also, we will need to work approximately 100 years to pay off school loans.
The second article mentions another industry we have ruined which is Harley-Davidson and the classic American motorcycle. This is a fun one because many people get motorcycles to get a thrill, yet millennials grew up watching war and terrorist attacks, or fearing school shootings.
Surviving daily life for a millennial is a thrill in itself. Not to mention, who has $10,000 in pocket change to afford the glorified death trap? Excuse us for being smart with the little money we have.
Though it is stressful to deal with being criticized while we try our hardest, there is one thing to look forward to: One day we will be the generation running the world and we can make it a more inclusive and open-minded place to live rather than a place full of criticism and judgment as we have had to live through.