I look around and see students complaining about not having money but are unwilling to get a job. I see easy assignments failed because “I just don’t feel like doing it.” I see shortcuts taken right and left, and quality lessens because of it.
It’s become too much.
The millennial generation is also known as Generation Y, which encompasses anyone currently between the ages of 18-34. My problem doesn’t lie with the term ‘millennial’, but with the unfortunate reality behind it.
Society has stopped expecting anything out of us. It’s become the status quo to stay young and avoid responsibility. While some of this problem can be blamed on enabling parents, the root of the issue is our mentality.
Being a millennial is not an excuse to be lazy, inconsiderate or rude. Being a millennial does not justify coming into work late day after day, only giving 50 percent effort 100 percent of the time or our main concern finding the perfect lighting for our Instagram picture.
As a college student, I understand why so many fall prey to the negative reputation of being a millennial. I understand we have our hands full with midterms, projects and social pressures, but we are not the first ones in the history of the world to have a lot on our plates. Does this make it okay to slack off because society has learned not to expect more out of us? Surely not.
I wish I could count the times I’ve heard the excuse, “I’m just too busy, I can’t do it all,” when the only things on the to-do list are going to intramural games and binge-watching Netflix. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying all college students need to be work-obsessed and stoic from all social interaction. But, people hide from the real world by using these “social expectations” as an excuse not to grow up and it’s become a serious issue.
Thinking we can put off deciding our future until the day we graduate is another big problem. Regardless of the major, there are far too many students who waste four years of building a portfolio and resume because they don’t want to think of the real world.
We are doing an injustice to those who have gone before us by closing our eyes and our minds to the reality of the world around us. Someone has to pave the way for the generations after us, and my fear is our generation has become complacent and negligent of the magnitude of growing up.
It blows my mind how many college students waste their summers sitting on the couch and then wonder why they don’t get the job they want when they graduate. It’s because millennials are entitled. We were given everything we ever wanted, from participation trophies to allowances for simply cleaning up our rent-free room.
Millennials aren’t the submissive beings expected from past generations. This is a characteristic I will rally behind. I can agree with the mentality of holding our own and not bowing down to just anyone. But there are too many reasons I feel shame from being in the millennial generation. I want to live in a world where I can be proud to be a millennial.
I aspire for a world where being a millennial only comes with the positive attributions, such as the creativity our generation is known for, the free and adventurous world we aim to live in and a collaborative workforce that is virtually unstoppable. But in order to achieve these ideals, we have to start somewhere.
It’s time to grow up. Go the extra mile. Put effort in. Have new experiences and realize we aren’t entitled to success, we have to work for it. Break through the thick wall of self-absorption society has deemed appropriate for people our age to have. Get off the couch and get in the real world. Since we claim to be adults, we should act like it.
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