The truth about millennials
‘Millennials are self-entitled individuals.’ Thus spoke Philippine Star Campus’ Vberni Regalado as he, together with a roster of motivational young speakers, conducted a seminar to talk about the career path, hardships, and traits of Filipino millennials.
While those words have yet to be validated and shown beyond doubt for other generations to entirely comprehend, I myself, being part of the so-called “selfentitled” generation, will also try to deconstruct common misconceptions on the characteristics of millennials. Four years ago, TIME
Magazine released an article entitled “The Me Me Me Generation,” tagging millennials as lazy, entitled, selfish, and shallow individuals.
The article presented cold-hard data and findings that millennials are: fameobsessed, self-confident of their own greatness, three times most likely to have the incidence of narcissistic personality disorder, and prone to developmental problems. Best of all, if not by far the most painful comment, millennials are lazy.
The points in the article really hit me, knowing that we sometimes fit one or more of those negative labels.
From time to time, however, I have come to realize that our generation has proven itself to be efficient and substantive.
During my Business and Economics Journalism class, I was busy jotting down possible main points to discuss on what makes millennials different from previous generations. There and then, I realized upon careful reflection that millennials are really passionate, risk-takers, and adaptable.
To those who remember what life was like before the Internet but were young enough to take the lead in technological advancements, they believe that their passion matters more than anything else.
For a young millennial like me who has not yet proven anything valuable in life, I believe that our desire to do the things that we really want to do in our lives allows us to keep doing great things.
As an aside, I was asked by a guidance staff during our career assessment session how I should respond to a company, which is offering a salary that is low but still considerable to finance my everyday needs. With an open mind and without any hesitation, I answered: “I will accept it as long as I am happy and contented with the job.”
I have come to a point in my life where I value happiness and contentment over material things. I have put those two above my own hierarchy of needs ahead of money and earthly luxuries, valuing precious experiences and savoring life’s greatest moments over owning material things which I can only grasp for a limited period of time.
Although millennials are tech-savvy individuals addicted to the latest updates of smartphones and applications, this does not make them less of a person than the previous generation as they use technology to their advantage, enhancing their lives and careers.
Dream big and invest big on the dream – this is the mindset of some millennials. Unfortunate as it may seem, the reality is that most of us take big risks.
Millennials take risks almost every chance they have, oblivious to the consequences and repercussions of their actions should their plans go off road.
On the contrary, I believe this can be a positive characteristic as taking risks also opens one’s doors to so many possibilities and chances.
Good if they succeed, and should they fail, millennials manage to cope and adapt to whatever hardship and setbacks they face. Through time, they get scarred, but molded by life-long struggles, they become versatile and resilient individuals.
Stress and pressure are also their constant companion, but no matter how severe a situation may present itself, millennials will tend to shrug it off and try their best to stand up, fix things, and be focused on things that usually drive them to become the best version of themselves.
To us, passion matters. Our passion is something that is worth taking risks for so we can adapt to the harsh and fast-changing environment. Millennials do not dwell on things they can’t do. Instead, they focus on things they can do and have control of.
You see, we can also contribute something positive beyond just wanting constant approval from the photos and posts that we post on our social media accounts. Millennials are optimists and pragmatic idealists, committed to becoming thinkers and doers.
They trust the system, and still can enact change, continuously finding a way to hack life’s greatest secrets.