As a Millennial All I Want Is To Live in Precedented Times

Temperature check, anyone else exhausted?

Like mentally, physically, emotionally, financially?

And yes, I know every generation struggles and every generation is feeling some level of struggle today so before you through your whataboutisms at me realize that I am a millennial and am writing this from my perspective.

When I was 11 years old I watched two airplanes fly into what I recognized at that age as “those big skyscrapers in New York”.

Ever since then, and at nearly 32 years of age, the majority of my life, I have lived in a world of ongoing war in the middle east.

In 2008 I graduated high school and for the next 4 years, I worked as a bank teller.

Yes, I worked at a bank during the recession and the bank bailouts. I remember my bank halting raises. And then learned that the corporate office bought a brand new BBQ grille and a TV for the break room. I later learned I was training people that made more than I did. By my early 20s, I was well aware that the world isn’t always fair.

Throughout the late 2010s and into the 2020s I saw the world become divided in ways I never imagined. Unrest everywhere and absolute chaos.

In December of 2019, I was excited to move down to southern Maine. Shortly thereafter we were struck with a global pandemic. My idealistic world of “new beginnings” became a world of getting to some sense of normalcy.

I’ve been watching the Maine housing market dry up. I have concluded that unless I marry a rich man or win the lottery, owning a home will very likely never be an option for me in my home state. And seeing people post their extremely high electric and heating bills these days, I’m not entirely sure I would want to now.

On top of all of that, we are watching a war unfold. And for the first time ever we have a front-row seat from our phones watching from the eyes and hands of people living it.

Then there are gas prices.

The burdensome weights keep piling up and I’m tired. I hear over and over again that “These are unprecedented times,” when all I want, for the first time since I was a kid, are some precedented times. Is that even possible? Are unprecedented times the new normal?

All any of us can really do is hang in there. And not be garbage humans to others. Somewhere along the way we’ve lost sight of what’s important and what it looks like to truly tolerate others. Tolerance is being kind and respectful even if you disagree. Tolerance will help build community, and support, in a time when we all truly need it the most.

-B