[Photo description: Me, in my wheelchair, in the kitchen. My head (with hair pulled back), torso and arms are in frame. My wheelchair joystick is also in frame. I am doing a bit of a side-profile subtle duck-face look. My shirt is my new favorite shirt that has the last names of the members of Queen: Mercury, May, Taylor & Deacon. The shirt is blue with white lettering.]
One more week until Thanksgiving break and everyone is feeling it. Students, teachers. Everyone. In other countries, they are prepping for Christmas already. The U.S. is doing it as well. The radio is already playing Christmas music. Peppermint is already a flavor in coffee shops. But the U.S. still has Thanksgiving to celebrate. While, nowadays, I hate the history of Thanksgiving with a passion, I try to focus how it is to be grateful instead of how colonials killed and stripped the land away from Indigenous people who lived there for centuries. But that’s besides the point! My first day of my school’s extension program for my ELLs (English Language Learners) will be this week and I’m all about the topic of “giving” and being “grateful.” We are going to be having a chat about this topic and I’m excited. I’ll tell you all about it, post-this Tuesday.
The topic of this week, aside from how my previous week went, is based on a list I made a few weeks ago. This week is all about the infantilization of millennials and how problematic it is.
We are the participation award generation. We are the generation that watched the spit-firing of technology – from the first Nintendo console to the Nintendo switch. From a computer that was the size of a room to a phone that has more gigabits than that room-sized computer ever had. We are also the generation of baby boomers. Of those who were drafted for wars but who also had enough money to graduate from HS, go to college get a job and afford a house by their mid-20s.
What might become of us is a generation where our parents support us, expecting us to just make it like they did. It’s so easy, right? Just work a few more hours and you’ll make it. A generation built on feeling guilty because we are working far more than our 9 to 5 and still not being able to afford basic expenses, paying back our college debts, having adequate insurance. That’s the dynamic I grew up with.
Then there’s an even more problematic dynamic. Infantilizating us. Holding our hand and not letting us go to fall on our faces. That’s the “participation award” part of my initial description. Aside from feeling guilty all the time, our existence is being cared for. “Don’t do this. I got this for you. Don’t worry about it. Just work this job your Aunt got it. It worked for me. I’m happy. I got this simple living and then I found a man/woman and got out of my house, moved in with so-and-so and popped out three kids.” Problem is – we are being hand-held with no means of affording to live beyond that of home. It is learned helplessness. Our existence is appeasing our parents “while they are still alive.”
And then there’s technology. With the ability to see what goes on beyond our four walls at home, we see that there’s more to life. And we want to be a part of that. We did not grow up the way our parents did where all they knew was from Newspapers and several channels on TV. We want to experience more and we feel trapped. So anxious because we never learned to survive. So depressed that we can’t make it out there. So guilty that we never did more with our lives like this influencer or this friend. So guilty for just existing.
But I want us to stop feeling guilty. I want us to stop putting blame on our parents, even though some definitely deserve it. We have to start taking a look at what we want. What is beyond these four-walls. What more could we be doing. What makes us happy? I’m not saying take a million steps forward. It’s hard to do that in a world that is clearly not made to make millinuals have that perfect, white-picket fence life like our parents did. But I want us to try. Try something small that makes us happy. Save a little money here and there. Indulge too. You may look, sound and even act somewhat like your parents/family. But you are not them. You are more. You are you. So stop being them. Stop living in their shadows and be the best you that you can be.
teachabilities 