My Generation

The 20s are all about moving forward. There are so many things we do and say that hold us back. What are we afraid of ? What do we have to lose? What do we have to do to be better? My generation is one that wants to try it all out, experience everything, document it, and look good doing it too. There's been so much talk about what our limitations are, what we do wrong, and how we can improve, but it's all from those not part of our millennial generation. My generation will define itself.

FOMO, an abbreviation for fear of missing out. Quite possibly one my generation's biggest contention points. Personally, am I nothing more than a classic case of FOMO. It is pretty much the entire essence of my being. It's the reason that I partake in six clubs & organizations, people upload pictures and didn't invite me, and nearly am incapable of saying no. I want it all. I want to be part of everything. I want to be noticed and featured. The fear of missing out truly is a common one. We're the generation that wants to be everywhere and do everything. The result is we end up sitting at home sometimes and doing there. It's hard to find a balance. Why do we only accept the extremes? What needs to happen is you go to things that really matter to you. It's okay, in fact you should say no if you're not feeling it. One night not doing anything isn't going to end your social life. Also, we need to experience things as they happen not after the fact with tagged pictures, vines and tweets. When did people start carrying professional cameras around? Why is our first reaction when something is going down to whip out our phones and start recording? Be in the moment and live life. We're missing out even when we're present. We need to challenge ourselves to put the phones and tablets away, take the earbuds out, and actually interact with one another and the world around us. It'll be my task for the year, and I'm excited to see how much of a difference it makes. My generation can figure out how to be in the world and notice it too. 

Grudges and change. Every single day my newsfeed and timeline on Facebook and Twitter are covered in Buzzfeed articles (aka lists with relatable gifs and a few words liter red here and there). I understand they actually perfectly describe our quintessentially quirky lives but damn can we not. My generation seems to be obsessed with nostalgia. We miss the good ole days, aka the 90s, hell even the early 2000s had their day. We're constantly comparing everything and everyone to our past. It's not doing us much good. We fail to accept people for who they are now instead of who we want them to be or who they were. We're stuck in rewind and it's time to break the cycle, besides VHS is so last century. We fear change like it's the devil Satan Lucifer himself out to get us. Time is moving forward, with or without us - look ahead and get going. Change is a natural part of life and hell yeah it's terrifying, but when we overcome our fears we find that change is often a breath of fresh air. My generation will go through a lot of changes, ready or not.

In that same vein is grudges and my generations uncanny ability to hold a mean one. I'll be the first to admit that people are constantly pissing me off, that's just life. You want to know the reason why it's so hard to let go, forgive and move on? Simple, we almost always are charged with forgiving someone who has not apologized. Like why should I show mercy to someone who hasn't shown any remorse for what they said or did? The thing is, how often do we actually confront people and let them know they actually hurt us? We operate under the assumption that people are aware of our state of being offended. Speak from the  first person and say "I feel or I felt ... when you did/said this." People cannot refute your emotions and that's a good starting place to repair the harm done. Just acknowledge what went down. The flipside and something we love doing is giving excuses. This is NOT and apology. "I'm sorry you feel that way, or I'm sorry you took it that way or I'm sorry if I offended you." It's not question of if, cause obviously ya did. Like get out of here with that half-assed sorry excuse for an apology. Accept that you hurt someone else, whether you intended to or not is irrelevant, and give your heartfelt sorry. If you're like me and a self-righteous person who's almost always sure that you're pretty much perfect in every way, as in I never do or say anything wrong, you have to swallow your pride. That's the toughest pill to swallow because that means accepting responsibility for your actions. My generation has excuses for EVERYTHING. When we don't, we think "I don't know" is an acceptable response. We know damn well what part we have played, and we know we feel, put it into words for a change. Stop avoiding difficult situations and tell the truth. Sometimes we deserve the blame. When we don't get things done we say we were busy. What we really should say is "It wasn't a priority to me." That'll check us real good, feel free to check others as well. Maybe we'll all be more upfront with our intentions. My generation has a lot to learn. 

Last but not least, opinions. My generations absolutely stakes our livelihood on giving our opinions on everything and everyone. News flash, it's not necessary nor is okay all the damn time. You can have an opinion all you want, but expressing it all the time gets old fast. We post, comment, tweet, text and talk about everything and everyone one. Every conversation we have is a debate that we must win. This isn't a caucus and you're not up for election, so get off the stage. We think that our opinions matter more than anyone else's (says the guy who's blogging his opinion hypocritically). The harsh truth is that they don't always have an impact. Let me tell you something, you know why we have all these social justice issues and issues in general, it's because people give their opinion about other people's lives. Who do we think we are? Who gives us the right to comment on who people are and what they do (crimes on American soil are different)? We believe our opinions have inherent truths and are irrefutable facts, but actually they're just opinions. What we do and say is correct to us, and us alone. Other people's personal truths may or may not be different, but we don't get to tell they are wrong. They may be wrong for you, just like your identities/beliefs/opinions would be wrong for them. This concept is so hard for us to grab. If we could understand it and let people live, we would avoid so much conflict. It's the reason we have so hate and drama all the time. We're super critical. We're judgmental.  We fail to see the impact of our opinions. I tweeted a few weeks ago some of my opinions (people bragging about Christmas presents and condemning mission trips to Africa), cause what is twitter for, and a couple people I know responded with tweets about how "rude" my tweets were. My opinion is my own, and you are entitled to yours, but what is giving your opinion on my opinion going to do - make you feel better that I know you're unhappy with my thoughts. Neither of us have to care, you choose to and I can just as easily choose not to. We need to learn when we should give our opinions and when they're needed, and most powerful as opposed to giving them frivolously. Share more selectively and our opinions about people need to go too. You don't get to judge people for who they are, that's not what makes us human. Millenials, we are a generation of thought and progress - prove it.

My generation seems to be a trendy one. We make things popular for a short time and they fade away just like dying fads. Vinefamous randos (the generic #whiteboys ruling the popular page currently), hashtagged trending topics, viral everything and being weird because it's in. We're more than just some 15 minutes of fame buffs, and we are not going anywhere. My generation will make a mark that will stand the test of time. My generation is defined by our passions and innovations. My generation is one that will change the world, but on our terms and when we're good and ready. 

My blog post question for the day is .. what makes your generation unique? I think my generation's love to share (even if it's just through social media) has brought the world a little bit closer and I'm okay with that.