MarcusASmith.com

Dear Parents, Baby Boomers, and “Older Adults”

Friday August 21, 2001 is forever etched in my memory. That morning I woke up as a country boy in Cordele, GA.  That night I went to sleep as a country boy in the city of Atlanta.  My life was about to do a vicious 180 degree back flip.  Here are the town’s vital stats:

•  Total Area – 9.6 square miles
•  Population – 11,608
•  Zip Codes – 31010 & 31015
•  Per Ca pita Income – $12,746 (46% of the population lives below the poverty line
•  Watermelon Capital of the World

That’s right.  It’s the Watermelon Capital of the World.  There’s something else about the town that those numbers don’t tell you. It’s incredibly divided and racist.  It’s one of the few remaining places on earth with 2 proms (white and black) and 2 homecomings (white and black).  It’s one of the few remaining places on earth with a train track that divides whites (east side) and blacks (west side).  The east side of town is gorgeous.  The streets are perfectly manicured, homes are properly maintained, and police respond if a butterfly cries out in pain.  When you cross the tracks to the west side something strange happens. You see large craters in the street, abandoned homes, and a much slower police response rate.

My childhood unfolded on the west side of the watermelon capital of the world.  99% of the people on the west side of Cordele, GA are black.  110% of the people on the west side of Cordele have a strong distaste for the white people on the east side of town.  There has never been any significant violence between the races that I can remember but you can cut the tension with a knife.  Its very obvious as soon as you get off of the interstate. As you can imagine an environment like this puts a young black man at a predominately white engineering school in a predicament.

I had 2 choices:

1. Continue to irrationally hate white people and live miserably amongst my colleagues.
2. Open my mind to what they had to offer and learn from them.

Choosing option #2 was arguably one of the best choices of my life.  At the ripe old age of 18, I learned that the world was bigger than my prejudices and desires.  I decided that I could accept people for what they brought to the table and not what I wanted them to bring to the table.

That brings me to the point of this article.  When I was 18, I learned that not everybody was going to line and jump when I pressed the red button on my little remote.  Not everyone saw things through the same slim frame glasses as I did.  If I could do that at 18 I know you can do it now.

Who Writes About Generation Y?

You know exactly who you are.  You are the group of people giving slandering my generation of people.  You are that group of 40-60 year olds calling us everything from narcissistic to lazy.  I’ve read enough negative press about Generation Y to make me want to throw up.  After reading the 100th article slandering my generation I realized something.  NONE of the articles I read about Generation Y were written by people from Generation Y.  Strange…very strange.

Somebody has to step up and defend Generation Y so I’ve decided to nominate myself. Come with me as I tell you who we really are (since you obviously don’t know).

Purpose Driven

I used to think I was an anomaly.  Thoughts ran through my mind that couldn’t possibly run through another young person’s mind.

• What type of 23 year old takes the reigns of a public speaking organization at a fortune 15 publicly traded company?
•  What type of 23 year old pesters his manager for something slightly resembling a career path for 4 straight months?
•  What type of 23 year old making an engineer’s salary sits on the edge of his bed by himself and wonders out loud if his work has any meaning?

Here’s the answer…a Generation Y 23 year old. Every time my friends and I chat the “P” word pops up.  Every single person I speak to wants their life to have a definite purpose. Nobody wants to be a hamster running on a wheel to nowhere. I’ve seen several writers incorrectly label this desire as narcissism.

If you called it naivete I’d agree.

If you called it wishful thinking I’d nod my head as well.

If you said it wasn’t statistically plausible I’d go along with that.

I can’t agree with the charge of being narcissistic.  Narcissistic personality disorder is a severe personality dysfunction.  If you’re saying 50 million people in a 7 year age band are narcissistic then I have some leftover Enron shares to sell you. Seriously, when did a burning desire for purpose in life become narcissistic?

Passionate

Generation Y wants the best and we don’t often settle.  We are a hard charging, risk taking, brain boosting, weight lifting, company starting, sky diving whirlwind of a generation.  That’s the way we like it.

When have you known a young person that wasn’t full of energy and passion? When have you known a young person who didn’t have plans to take over the world?

There is no reason to chastise our energy and zest.  There is no reason to write us off as energetic little kids.  Think back to your 20’s.  I bet you were passionate.  I bet you were enthusiastic.  I bet you wanted to take on the world.

Didn’t you? Why isn’t Generation Y given the same chance as you?

From what I’ve seen it’s usually the people with a burning desire that push things to the next level.  Sounds like a positive character trait to me.

High Maintenance

If I hear this one more time I’m going to stick my head in the ground.  Apparently our elders have forgotten what the word means.  I have not.

One of my ex-girlfriends was high maintenance.  When the new camel brown, open toe, high heel, alligator skin, foot massaging shoe came out she always had to be the first to have it.  The woman had a closet full of shirts, blouses, jackets, boots, shoes, purses, and pants but she always wanted more.  She was in love with eating out at the expense of others. She lived in an incredibly overpriced apartment that she had no business living in.  Anything less was beneath her.  If you didn’t complement her 47 times a day she’d go into convulsions.  That is high maintenance.

Fortunately she wasn’t a member of Generation Y.  Even if she was it still wouldn’t represent the majority of us.  We aren’t a group of lazy, self-indulgent kids looking for a pat on the butt every time we do something right.

We are a group of hard working people who expect to be recognized when we do something noteworthy. Nothing more and nothing less.While I’m on the subject I need to ask a question.

Who are these people raised during the “positive thinking” movement where everybody is a winner? I think I missed that boat.  When I was in little league the losing team went home and cried to parents who told them “you win some…you lose some”.  When I was in school children who weren’t ready to move on to the next grade were not promoted.  When I turned 15 I started working as a bus boy because I enjoyed eating. All of my friends grew up the same way.  I’m begging somebody to show me all these high maintenance generation Y crybabies. I don’t know any. 

Value Quality of Life

In past generations it was fine to drive yourself crazy working 1 million hours during the week and search for a shred of joy on the weekend.  We watched our neighbors and parents do this for years on end.  Honestly, it didn’t look like a very desirable lifestyle.  As a result we vowed to create a better one for ourselves.  My generation doesn’t like to sit around showing face for the sake of showing face.  We’re constantly thinking of ways to add real value to the world. That may be shocking given our age but trust me it’s true.

Sitting around in the office until 7 p.m. just isn’t adding much value in our eyes.  We strive to strike a find blend of time and value.  That’s the real reason we’re leaning towards the door at 5 p.m.  It has nothing to do with our “lack of commitment” to the organization. Generation Y realizes that the average human life span is 78 years.  We hate to waste our time and resources or the time and resources of others.

So if we come off brash, narcissistic, self-indulgent, impatient, or portray an image of self-entitlement it’s only because we sincerely want to make the most of our lives.  Isn’t that what you taught us to do?

Conclusion

Visiting my little brother, sister, and cousin used to be so annoying.  Those kids would never let me rest.  As soon as my bags hit the ground they were on me like white on rice.  My little brother always wants to play fight.  My little sister wants to climb up my body.  My little cousin insists on wearing my clothes and asking me questions until she’s out of breath.  Not of these events are fun when you’re dog tired.

One day I was complaining to my grandmother about it.  She listened for 30 seconds before silencing me.  Apparently she was annoyed that I had the audacity to be annoyed.  She frowned her face and said to me “You used to be the same way.  Now that I think about it, you were worse.  Those children look up to you.  They admire you.  They want to impress you and they are seeking your approval.  Don’t turn your back on them because they have energy and enthusiasm that you don’t understand”.

Now that I think about it maybe (just maybe) my grandmother wasn’t just addressing me.  Maybe the older generations should accept us for who we are.  Maybe you shouldn’t label us as deviants just because you don’t understand our energy and enthusiasm.

I like that idea.

How about you?    

written by Marcus A Smith