Dear Old People,
I get it. Really, I do. Seeing what happens in the world today, I understand why you get angry- why from your couch, you fume over the nightly news and shake your fist, thinking to yourself, “kids these days.” There are absolutely things to be angry about. However, I sometimes think that your anger is misguided, finding a home in the minds of today’s youth. Being a part of this generation, I feel a need to remind you of a few things.
For one thing, if iphones, tablets, and laptops had been created in your generation, don’t lie and pretend that you wouldn’t love taking selfies too. Sure, there’s such a thing as overkill. But you never experienced the fun of laughing with your friends over a funny Vine, or posing for a picture with a selfie stick. You never blushed at a nice Instagram caption that your friend posted about you, or found out the latest current events at your fingertips. Technology is incredible, and this generation is using it to do incredible things, not just run into walls because they’re too busy texting.
I don’t remember ever being responsible for childhood poverty, the economic crisis, or the war in Iraq. Though it’s easy to spew bitter words about our generation, it’s easy to forget that we’re the generation that pays 200% more for college tuition than your generation ever did. We are often suffering for the mistakes of generations before ours.
And please, stop yelling about our music. I won’t make you admit it, but you know that it’s catchy.
And we know, our relationships are much different than yours used to be. Older couples often married their very first boyfriend or girlfriend, stayed married and had plenty of children running around. But this day in age, things have changed. Less women are itching to get married, and instead, are seeking sustainable education and careers. Couples are waiting longer to have children, and some, believe it or not, are choosing not to have children at all. Men and women are looking less to define themselves by another person, and are looking inward to find a more intelligent, successful version of themselves. If anything, this makes our relationships more important to us, because we aren’t looking to settle for the mediocre: we are looking for genuine. We are not willing to surrender our entire lives or settle for anything less than what we deserve. Since when is women succeeding without a man a bad thing? Since when is it your business to care if they’re married before they move in together? Our relationships are different that yours were, but that does not make them worse.
And no, we don’t hate your religion, either. It’s true, traditional is starting to annoy us, but instead of recognizing us as lazy, ignorant, and selfish, maybe see us as ambitious. We’re willing to ask the questions and we’re willing to seek out the answers. We aren’t ones to blindly believe anything; we want something authentic.
And we’ve come to realize that our bodies are our own, and own the right to dress them however we’d like. Your era was different, and clothes weren’t as much a form of expression as they are now. Not only that, we’re not afraid of our bodies, especially when we’re proud of them. I wear the leggings because my butt looks fabulous in them, and I’m confident about the ass that I worked for. So guys have purple hair and girls wear crop tops, and we don’t really care if you don’t like it.
I understand your pessimism when it comes to us- after all, you need someone to blame. But when you see this generation, you see lazy, selfish and arrogant. For us, we see a generation seeking a different goal than generations before. We’re seeking personal successes, living out a life not surrounded by pay checks and deadlines. I don’t mean to the shame the life that you lived, because clearly you’re confident in the choices that you’ve made. We’re only trying to be confident in our choices too, only it’s taking us on different paths. And for us, different is okay. We hope that one day, you’ll understand that.
