Growing up in today’s south has opened my mind to a lot of different outlooks. The most profound one to me is deciding the future as a young millennial. Throughout highschool and college, I did what any scholar did, and worked my ass off for a goal that everyone says is worthwhile. However, I never thought it made sense. I couldn’t see myself have an office job for ten years, no matter the salary. In fact, I couldn’t see myself, anywhere. It’s like every time I envisioned my professional future, I only drew blank cards. I couldn’t see farther than the options everyone offered for my degree, yet I knew there were more. I’ve been feeling very inspired and proud of my generation these last few months as I’ve come to learn that people are making money from modelling, blogging, travelling, taking notes of their lives, writing their thoughts, and creating their own logos for the year like “yolo” “queen” “black lady magic”. I don’t think I’d ever truly be into trends as much as the rest of my generation, but I can say that creativity is of the essence of my dear millennials.
In the south, there’s a lot of tension between millenials and baby boomers today. We millenials are often called lazy with our heads in the clouds. Boomers are often called entitled because millenials don’t have the financial opportunities baby boomers did. The future is a conundrum for all of us because millenials want something greater than industry, but don’t know how to socially fight; baby boomers want power over times that they can no longer progress in. No one seems to care about the generation in between, but I don’t think society minds that. The truth is, it’s not one side against the other. It’s about people being able to stand up for the future we want. My generation wants money and success. But we don’t want office jobs, because we don’t want industry to win. We want to bring back every proud moment in human history and create a grand aesthetic that finally makes sense of what we’ve been lacking for so long… Not discipline. Mental freedom. I want mental freedom. And the key to that is us controlling our state of mind. Some of us have so much on our mind that we don’t have time or energy for things like marriage, children, or picket fences. We like the idea of these things, but not the typical journey along the way. Most of us will work hard for what we want. However millenials will not give themselves up for anything that is only going to suck their being dry. WE don’t want it if we’re going to lose ourselves along the way! We want to rise above it and become better than we were. We want to be healthier, happier, and in control for longer. We want to outlive you Boomers!!!
Despite the many progressive changes going on, we still have so many flaws, like social media encouraging sex, sex, parties, and more sex, and disguising that as toxic love, and sometimes the only love. Every generation has their own flaws. But changing the path, by changing our minds and coming together is one of many ways to get past these flaws. How many do you see in your generation? And what solutions do you have to offer?
Nonna 