Millennials have energy, passion

Kaity Holtman

A few weeks ago, I picked a bone with the “back in my day” comment I hear all the time.

I defended and tried to offer perspective, but what I didn’t do was remind you that there is quite a bit of good coming from this millennial generation.

Note: Pew Research Center defines millenials as those between 18 and 34 in 2015.

Oftentimes, my generation can be grouped together to be lazy, entitled, and all kinds of negative things.

And yes, I will give it to you, many are those things.

But not all of us are. I promise.

Sure, maybe we don’t cook our meals from scratch anymore, sew our own clothes, or follow all of the traditions our elders think we should.

But there are some in this generation — I like to think myself included, but I’m sure someone will tell me if they disagree — who are still productive, contributing members of society.

As I look around, I see millennials opening, or already successfully running, their own businesses that are contributing to this community’s success and even growth.

I see millennials in leadership positions for the city, chamber, and other organizations.

I see millennials in management positions and making advances in their careers.

I see millennials involved in their churches, children’s school organizations, and a variety of civic clubs.

I see millennials defining and steering their careers through college educations.

I see millennials entering the armed forces, though in smaller numbers because we live in a time when it’s not mandatory.

I see millenials valuing technical education and recognizing the need for those services, especially in rural areas.

And with each of these “I see millennials” statements, I have many specific faces coming to my mind.

Those people are my classmates from high school and college, people I interact with through advertising and my work on a daily basis, people in the communities where I live and where I work.

They’re out there. We’re out here.

Sure, we’re learning from history and those before us, but we’re also challenging the “we’ve always done it this way” mindset.

Because those who raised us taught us to “make a difference” and “follow our dreams.”

And while we may have hit the real world and realized that “our dreams” need to mix with reality and our communities’ needs for us to be productive, contributing members, we’re still going to make a difference.

We’re a pretty determined bunch.

We may not make the perfect decisions every time, but failure is part of learning and our overall success, which we hope will benefit others.

We may forget to ask the people who have lived what we’re going through, but it’s not because we don’t value older generations.

Sometimes it’s because we’re too stubborn and think we need to figure it out on our own.

On the other hand, we may ask those older than we are what seems like too many questions, but it’s because we want to do it right.

If our ideas are way out there, we need both encouragement and realistic advice.

If we don’t listen to “we tried that before — it didn’t work,” older generations shouldn’t be offended or think we’re going to fail.

It’s a different time, and it’s worth a shot.

See, just like generations before us, we want our community to thrive and progress for future generations.

We have energy that is waiting to be used up, and we want to see just how big of an impact we can make.

Our generation is a melting pot of so many different influences and interests. And while that may seem to keep us from being one cohesive generation, it does offer a variety of different brains to develop ideas and follow through with plans.

It’s so wonderful to sit in meetings and see generations collaborating in the workplace, in community events, and in betterment projects.

Our success – and even our failures – are the testaments of a combined passion to make our communities better places.