Millennial

After reading the article discussing the qualities of millennial, I started thinking. I feel like I fit into this category as I read the qualities described of our generation. I was born in 1996 so my chronological age puts me into this generation. I also agree with the drive for making a difference in the world verses being purely financial driven. Claire Thompson and The Pew Report, describes some of the challenges we face entering into adulthood. They describe how many young adults are struggling financially. Those who are lucky enough to have a job are being paid below average salaries. Those employed in similar positions prior to the recession were paid significantly higher wages. This puts us behind the eight ball right off the bat. Ms. Thompson states that our generation will never be able to “catch up” financially when we start off so far behind. This concept makes sense to me. How can a generation make up such delayed salaries? She mentioned even if the economy picks up, the salaries will not catch up. The Pew Report stated that our generation is more upbeat than previous generations. Despite the financial difficulties our age group is facing, we are able to stay confident and continue to look ahead. I think many of us watched our parents dedicate their lives to making payments and being tied to their jobs. Maybe, our generation took it all in and subconsciously decided we wanted something different for ourselves. When the jobs disappeared and the salaries declined our generation looked for something different. The article talked about the inability for the majority of my generation to be able to afford the material things our parents have. I agree with Ms. Thompson’s interpretation of millennial generation’s response. Maybe there is something better out there than buying material possessions. If our generation won’t have the financial resources to purchase what we grew up with, we need to change our way of thinking.

 

To sum this up, “If we are anything…. we are a generation of strong and confident survivors. We have witnessed recession and war. We have also experienced material items that make life easy. We now have to decide what path we want to take.