Letter to Baby Boomers

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Dear Baby Boomers,

Please let me finish before you say anything (how many times did you hear us say this as kids before delivering you a well rehearsed [all be it rather flawed on refelction] sales pitch?!)

I want to preface this letter with 2 key points…
1. Us Gen Y’s are actually much fonder of you Baby Boomers and Gen X’s than you are of us… some of my favourite people on earth are part of your lot… so keep that in mind when reading this letter!
2. We don’t always appreciate it, but totally understand your judgement of us. We can’t stand the current youth brat pack that is the Gen Z’s or naughties or whatever the ferals that have come after us are called these days.

Ok, so here is the thing, if I hear “Young kids today…” one more time (until the day it starts to come out my mouth of course), well I won’t actually do anything because you have always told us we need to respect our elders, but I’ll be seething on the inside (politely of course!).

My life isn’t a failure or over because I’d rather trek through South America than buy a house in Sactuary-Vale-Links-Lakes Estate or whatever the newest fringe suburb of Melbourne 435km from the CBD is (although incidentally, there is absolutely nothing wrong with my fellow gen y’s who think South America is ridiculous and want a roof over their heads, we have OPTIONS and are all different which is what makes us so special – but we’ll get to the things you’ve told us as we grow up in a moment!)
I’m also not going to die unhappy or alone becuase at 27 I’m not married with 2 of the 3 toddlers and a golden retriever you wanted for me running around my ankles in the above mentioned estate. In fact, forget the rugrats, I’m not even married, but that is ok too. I’m not going to settle just yet on the off chance I run into Bradley Cooper and the above mentioned picture turns out a little more how I had envisaged it! 

We know we haven’t had the same career path since we were 17 and finished high school (because that is SUCH a great age to be making big life decisions isn’t it?!), but isn’t the purpose of life to find something we love doing, or at least the thing that pays for the prettiest, most expensive shoes? Oh and the drinks in South America.

And finally, on the job front, we’re not all a bunch of lazy so and so’s floating through life without any direction… A lot of the people I know work ridiculous hours and carry around a tiny piece of technology that means even when they are away from work, it is still with them wherever they go… how many of you were receiving work related telegrams at the pub on a Saturday night hey!?

Now, I’m not about to play the blame game… As I said, we love you, I just wanted to highlight a few things that you taught us along the way…
1. We are all so, so special, can do anything, have anything, and be anything… Yup, your words, every night as you tucked us in. Along with the world is our oyster, you have your whole life ahead of you etc etc
2. You gave us the best life you could with everything you had, and whilst we may not always show it, we do appreciate it (well most of us, most of the time). So of course we’re going to strive for more, better, NOW!
3. Yes, we do want instant gratification,  we see something decide we want it and have to have it now… BUT, you guys gave us credit cards and the Internet and On demand TV!! Really? What did you expect!?
4. I know this is a touch subject, so lets just lightly touch the surface and then move on… we don’t rush into marriage and babies at 22 because we don’t want to be divorced by 40… let us explore, we’ll figure it out! And I guess tying into that as well as out penchant for multiple jobs or what you might see as a nomadic/gypsy lifestyle – “don’t settle”, “find happiness”, “You only get on shot at this life”… Your parents were perhaps a little more practical in their teachings (oh and a depression and war probably played a part in that one) but you taught us to dream big – and we do!!

So in conclusion, THANK YOU!! All the things you pick apart about us are just the parts of your teachings we have embraced. We may be a little impulsive, a bit silly, I believe frivolous and irresponsible are occasionally bandied about, but we’ll make it in the end, after all it is OUR lives we’re playing with! Plus some geezers before us started destroying the planet and invented nuclear warfare so what would be the point of having money in the bank if something happened with either of those things!!

Finally, at least we’re not slightly overweight 10 year olds who spend all day sitting in front of a screen, ask for new laptops instead of bicycles for our birthdays and aren’t at all interested in listening to anything you have to say… I’m sure that letter will follow in 15-20 years!

Your ever loving and lovable Gen Yer,
Nat
xx