I am only 21, but I am fed up with our generation.

I cannot bear another whimsical article about being a twenty something. With everything I have been through, of course I believe it is important to make mistakes and learn from them, but we are all being told lies. We are being told that right now is a time to be carefree and fuck up for no reason.

We are so ungrateful. For the “20-somethings” like me that are currently still finishing undergrad. It all matters. So much. We have been granted the opportunity to obtain a vast amount of amazing and challenging knowledge, to do something with it and to test our abilities to make a difference in this world. Instead of articles telling us how to get through the stress of all that, we have ones that tell us exactly what emojis we should use when texting a guy you have a crush on.

My father came to America from India for school to further his career and for an opportunity for a better life. He used to tell me that he had to walk 3 miles to and from school every. single. day. But he loved it, he was ecstatic because he got to learn. He felt so lucky to have an education, something that my generation massively takes for granted.

We bitch and moan about having to roll out of bed and walk ten minutes to campus. We get assigned a term paper and instantly sign on to Facebook to make a status about how much we hate school, how hard it is because we have to do work. Then we soak up all the 20-something articles that tell us were right, we don’t need to work hard!

We need to discover ourselves through getting drunk, or traveling with no money or hooking up with various guys to know ourselves better. Who ever thought we should pick up a book, ask more questions in class or volunteer in an academic field that interests you? Who ever thought that we should write more, study more, learn more about things that can actually make a difference?

Does knowing what emoji to send to someone make a difference? Does attempting to compare our generation to the “lost hippies of the 60s” make us feel better about ourselves? Quite honestly it embarrasses me.

We should expect better of ourselves. We hold all the ability to educate ourselves, and instead my generation is filling it with shit.