Of course one cannot generalize about any demographic cohort. Yet, we do. We in America talk about the boomer generation. Forever! There is an idealization of "the greatest generation." Nobody ever talks about Gen X!
Given that society has granted the permission to talk about generational cohorts, well, the millennial generation seems to have been presented with the best of times and the worst of times.
Consider, for instance, that just as the generation was getting into the teens and growing up into adulthood, 9/11 happened. Then the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Great Recession. College debt. Then tRump. And Covid. The pandemic recession.
The millennial generation deserves an applause simply for holding it together.
For those who successfully navigated through these, opportunities were in plenty. The digital natives now rule (ruin?) our lives. Money is being made, and a good chunk of it is spent at coffee shops and restaurants.
The ups and downs, and the recent pandemic life, have provided many millennials to also seriously consider what they want to do in life.
Some have simply quit their jobs. "Work is a false idol," writes this millennial:
"Work has become intolerable. Rest is resistance" writes @cassadyariel in @nytopinion
— Sriram "laid off" K (@congoboy) August 23, 2021
She quit her job as a producer at “Here & Now,” a @NPR news program, and now enjoys an Appalachian life.
Brava!https://t.co/pRLq6Vc3mm
I am pretty confident that as a younger person I too would have taken that kind of a route. There is something eerie about the working conditions of today, and I wouldn't want to be a part of it.
A few months before the pandemic era began, this article argued that the millennials have become the burnout generation. That was the case even before Covid! With that article as the lede, this review essay asks an important, critical, question: How many young people have agency over their working lives?
The author of the commentary "work is a false idol" writes:
While jobs are sustenance, careers are altars upon which all else is sacrificed.
In her poem “The Summer Day,” Mary Oliver asks, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?”
My reply, for now, is simple: Sit on the porch.
As a Gen X-er myself, I find sitting on the porch to be the best answer, even though I came to it rather involuntarily.
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