Generation Why?!

First of all, allow me to welcome you to my first ever blog post!  A short explanation of why I wanted to begin a blog is because I enjoy writing, I have opinions, I love America (freedom of speech, right?) and I want to share my thoughts, dreams and positivity with the world.  Mainly, things go by me in this life that I feel a deep yearning desire to record my thoughts and to open up dialogue on the topics.  This is what I hope my blog will accomplish.

Are you ready?  HERE WE GO!

I am a member of Generation Y or what can also be referred to as Millennial's.  Call us whatever you want, frankly I think generational names are silly. (Baby Boomers?!  We get it, there are tons of you!  QUIT HOGGING THE SOCIAL SECURITY DAD!  G.I./"The Greatest Generation?!  That's awfully arrogant don't you think Grandpa!?)

The reason for this explanation is because last week on social media outlets there was an article circulating posted by the Huffington Post.  The piece was titled "Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy"...you have my attention Mr. Huffington!  First of all, I consider myself an eternal optimist and make the most out of any situation.  Some might even call me annoyingly upbeat, energetic and positive so allow me to thank those people for an awesome compliment!  Thus the title of this article peaked my interest as I am a Millennial and yet somehow I have beaten the system to find happiness.  So I read on...

To partake in some light reading for yourself, you can find the article HERE! (For any Boomers or GI's reading this, you need to click on the word "HERE" at which time the magic Internet box will pull up a new "window" where you can read the article.  It's magic!)

The article goes on to discuss a happiness formula derived as (Un)Happiness = Reality - Expectations.  In layman's terms it means to expect less and achieve more and you will find happiness.  I think they made a song about this.  It also portrays this particular sect of the Millennial generation as protagonists, delusional, unable to handle feedback and in not so many words being ungrateful, whiny, entitled brats!  The overlying theme of the article is that Millennials are unhappy because they have such high expectations that they are falling short of.

The response, as you might imagine from my generation, was quite comical!  Comments blasting the author for being out of touch and having no idea the types of challenges our generation faces.  Just as quickly as the original article circulated on social media, a response was circulating written by a Millennial himself.

In the title of this response is the poetically written phrase "Fuck You".  Congratulations Mr. Author, you just established your credibility.  The blog goes on to respond to this article that commented about a generations disappointed expectations, inability to handle criticism, and overall whininess.  In what seems almost comically ironic this author's response has an angry tone about the authors portrayal of  Gen Y (inability to handle criticism?) and he goes on to state reasons (I would call them "excuses" or "whining") for a generations inability to achieve their hopeful success.

The responses were comical to me especially since the original post was one persons opinion of a generation, probably a person from outside the generation itself.  It is wildly generalized but tries to portray a sect of our generation that this person has probably had many interactions with, (at no point in the original article does it say "ALL Gen Y'ers" are this way) and in all honesty, has some honest nuggets of truth in it.

We are a dependent generation, we are an entitled generation, we have high hopes and dreams but are extremely frustrated with the external outliers that we feel limit us.  We blame other people for student loans that WE willingly secured.  We blame others for never teaching us how to properly do things.  We feel lost in a world that we thought we would have figured out by now.

Don't agree with me?  Did the initial article make you angry?  Then you are exactly the person who needs to hear it and needs to adjust.  My challenge to Generation Y is to stand outside of yourself and look in.  What do you see?  What do you struggle with?  Yes, the world and economy has created many challenges for ourselves as we seek careers and professionalism, but what barriers have we created for ourselves?  What excuses are we making for not accomplishing the goals that we have set forward?  Do we even have goals?  If not, create some.  Now look again at yourself, your generation.  What strengths do we have?  What circumstances and challenges has our generation been through that has created a unique value proposition of our generation?

Generation Y has been raised in a technology driven world that changes every day.  Utilize that knowledge!  Yes, we were pampered and coddled but we also tend to work great in teams and collaborate with others.  We have sympathy and caring in the workplace that makes us great managers even more so than our Type A personality, Baby Boomer parents.

So the next time you go into a job interview know this...There are 10's of 100's of qualified applicants.  Show your value, don't wait until they see how special you are.  Then, if you are fortunate enough to get the job, know that this is not the culmination of all your hard work and schooling.  This is an opportunity for you to work even harder and to earn your keep in this world.  My hope for our generation is that we don't look for the opportunities that we think we deserve but that we work for the opportunities that we earn!