In a world where technology along with politics, art, music, and just living in general move at the speed of light, it’s difficult to move out of the nostalgic hurdle that millennials find themselves faced with.
Half writing this and half typing, it’s still easy to remember sitting at the same kitchen table without headphones to drown out the blaring living room television, struggling to see the screen of my battered GameBoy Advance in the fluorescent-lit room. It’s that question, that trailed off “Do you remember…” that still stays in so many millennial minds. Even the name ‘millennial’ sounds archaic on the tongue as if the generation who raised us still wants a hold in saying how our lives go.
Transitioning from the world of sidewalk chalk and busy playgrounds no matter the season along with Saturday morning cartoons worth watching to elementary school kids with iPhones and a Cartoon Network barely worth watching is a time jump not a lot of people expected to make.
Going from a childhood where time seemed to depend on how many hours until recess started and running to the ice cream truck marked the beginning of summer to one where you see more adults outside than kids is only the tip of an iceberg full of changes.
Is the future bad? No. It’s not something to be afraid of. But it doesn’t mean leaving every aspect of that glossed over happy feeling that can’t be replaced with an Instagram filter has to stay behind with the sunset.
It’s not millennials who were ever the issue. If you want to see why the present is the way it is, look at the past. The generation who raised millennials ruined nearly every chance they have at a successful life, peace of mind, and following their dreams. They like to berate the fruits of their labor, fruits that had a taste of sunlight before falling into an idealized view of what was to come.
The next millennial bashing article I read shouldn’t be bashing them; if anything, it should start questioning Generation X for all the harm they’ve done.
