The Best Thing About The Millennial Generation

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There’s something I really love about this new generation of rebels, or millennials, as most commonly known.

Rebels go against the norm that they should spend a good percentage of their adult years working away their life, making just enough money to afford to live. To afford to be comfortable. To afford to never complain about their sub-par job because it was their first and only offer out of college.

After all, nothing screams I went to a reputable institution for 4 years and graduated with a paper and a slew of debt, like that part-time job at Betty Joe’s Cracker Shop, right? I mean, what more could you really want?

By textbook definition, isn’t the American Dream getting an education, landing a decent job, starting a family and having them regurgitate that cycle to make you proud? Oops, I left out the white picket fence! MUSTN’T FORGET THE WHITE PICKET FENCE!

And this isn’t to invalidate anyone who’s gone this route or chooses to go this route, because in all honesty, it’s safe, it’s smart, and you’ll fit right in the perfect mold for society’s standards.

We’re trained to learn and think just enough to get us far in life, but not too much because God forbid we realize that it’s all kind of just a trap. And spoiler time, nobody makes it out alive.

How many people are willing to take commissioned jobs these days? Virtually no one. We want that guaranteed money, because we’d be afraid to get paid what we’re actually worth.

Oh, but except for the outlier. The millennial. The new-age rebel. The one that knows since they work harder than the average person, they can actually be the dictator of their [higher] paychecks. For example, if you thoroughly clean three cars at the pace it takes your equally-trained co-worker to clean one, it’s insulting knowing they’re taking home just as much as you, when you’re producing 3x the work.

More and more millennials are going for the commissioned pay. The odd jobs abroad that they risk stability for, and in term reap life experiences. They’re sacrificing comfort and security and investing in their nows and todays. They’re no longer interested in only saving for a future they can’t even guarantee making it to. Life is so fleeting, and every day, freak accidents and natural disasters remind us of that.

An earthquake in Nepal, flooding in Texas, a heat wave in India. Collectively wiping people out by the thousands. Not war, but natural disasters. Something no one can predict or control.

And it’s more than just bodies that go to the grave when we die. A lot of times it’s our ambitions. Our goals. Our dreams that we kept putting off until “tomorrow” (bless that beautiful, non-existent fairytale land). Or perhaps we’re waiting for a certain dollar amount to our name. Whatever excuse we convince ourselves into believing we aren’t ready, adequate, or capable is just the sh*t of a bull.

You can call this millennial generation spoiled. You can call us lazy. You can even call us hedonistic and selfish to a degree. But don’t call us when you, too, realize that the one life you have to live should’ve been spent chasing, investing, and pursuing in whatever it is that sets your soul on fire.

For me, that’s traveling. As soon as I graduated college, I booked a one-way ticket to Europe after landing a gig in the UK. I turned a 6-month contract into a 2-year indefinite stay as I’ve hustled and bustled my way down a road less traveled to follow my heart’s desires. My relentlessness to find a way to fund my travels, while learning, exploring, and discovering other cultures was nothing short of a dream during my college days.

Making it my reality has only inspired me more to help encourage and empower others to make whatever it is they want, their reality too. Millennials, WE are the future. And the future is now.