The Millenials

About nine years ago, I was a fresh college graduate eager to take on the world. With an average grade, and the absence of advantageous connections, however, I didn’t have a choice but to be confident with my creativity and communication skills.

Thankfully, in the SLU Humanities department before; most of us, while studying, worked either as part-time English Language tutors for foreign students, or call center agents for outsourcing companies at night. Aside from our distinct approach and confidence, we were admittedly party-starters hungry for new things – information, culture, gadgets, and perhaps, experiences. They call us the "Millennials."

The Millennials, or "Y" generation, those born from 1980s to year 2000, and majorly shaped by technology; from the advent of Walkman, MTV, the popularity of video games, to the rise of the new media and smart phones, is seen to have the tendency to be impatient, self-absorbed and vain. As the link to the old school and new school, they were often misunderstood.

No thanks to social media, they were exposed to a culture where self-worth is measured by the number of "likes," and information gathering is affected by the unstable environment of alternative facts and fake news. Throw in the pop culture of YOLO (You Live Only Once), and DIYs (Do It Yourself) challenged by the existing age-old traditions and systems in the government, school, and work places, and we have a bunch of confused and exhausted generation (or maybe I’m just talking about myself).

Despite this however, most from my generation are bold people; leaving sleepy towns for the hurly-burly and fast-paced energy of Metro Manila, or going abroad in search for remunerative jobs, or even bravely contending for executive, or official positions at home never mind the tradition of seniority, or politics. They have the willingness to face challenges – a quality instilled by their hardworking Generation X parents, and that brashness of trailblazers like Mark Zuckerberg, the millennial who flipped the world. As such, they believed that they can fairly call themselves the Generation next.

It is too early to tell how my generation would place in the history of the world. Nevertheless, just like the generations before ours, there are also many great challenges that we are bound to face – from the rising costs of assets, the need to conform to trends to be accepted, urban decay, environmental degradation, the judgmental social media society, up to waiting for the "One Piece" comic to end. The world today is different from the world before. But, if all generations regard themselves as the best, then perhaps we can also comfort ourselves that we can be great ourselves.