I was shown this article by my older sister, who after having a heated argument resulting in a defeated Google search (defeated for her as Google proved me right), realised she was able to consider her 29 year old self in the same category as my 18 year old being- this literally made her almost 30 year old self’s year, no joke.
“It all makes sense now”, she said “when I was reading this, I was thinking of you and thought the author got the generations wrong”. After again informing her that this meant she was reading about herself also, she said, “but no, you are a Gen Y yuppie, I am just Gen Y”. In my frustration to understand her, I rolled my eyes and went on scrolling through instagram photos.
She slammed the laptop in my lap and said, “I’m going to leave you for 5 minutes, do yourself one favour and properly read it, uninterrupted and then you will tell me what you think”.
She has pulled this type of trick on me before, so I immediately assumed that it was something about the whining attitudes, selfish and immature actions and ungratefulness that today’s youth show in every aspect of their lives.
Was I wrong!
This article (which I think should be on next week’s required reading list) is able to sum up, particularly my age group. Not only the way many of us have been brought up, but also our opinions and mindsets when it comes to the future.
It is an easy read; humorous yet makes a strong and valid point.
If anything, it provided hope for me, which is ironic as it is kind of trying to do the exact opposite. We have this notion that our lives will just work out, that jobs and houses and private jets will magically appear on our doorstep, and I think we greatly underestimate the amount of “blood, swear and [many, many] tears” that NEEDS to be done in order for anyone to even begin thinking about these things.
He leaves us on a note saying that we should not give up on our dreams and goals, and we should stay “ambitious” but to “stop thinking [we] are special”-brutal, but something a lot of us need to hear. Everything in our society, more or less, has been sugar coated….a drastic exaggeration but our upbringings have been, again more or less, surrounded by cushioning from the real outside world. We should be ready for disappointments and failures and heart ache and trauma, and for this reason, fight really hard so at the end of the day (or end of our 50’s) we can sit down, look back, look around and feel accomplished and proud of what we were able to achieve.
Seriously, give this article a read on your way in to uni; it will have a profound effect!