We’re in the thick of winter so it’s no surprise to see the word “snowflake” pop up regularly in conversation this time of year.
Yet, it’s been used in a whole new way recently.
“Snowflake” has become a synonym for entitled, lazy, worthless millennials like myself.
We are the participation trophy generation, often ridiculed for our inability to accept criticism, our attachment to smartphones and our terrible work ethic. Yet I think hard on my youth soccer days of 15 years ago and definitely don’t recall asking adults to incessantly mock me for the rest of my life for the meaningless trophy they chose to present me.
Questioning work ethic is absurd when I see students everyday who are balancing 19 college credit hours, a job or two and membership in RSOs, among other things.
But we’ll put up with all that!
Because throughout our entire childhood we were told that if we attended college we’d get a good job right after graduation, and even if we didn’t go to school we could still make a decent enough wage to get by. Either way, all the hard work will be worth it when we’re able to settle behind a white picket fence for our slice of the American Dream.
That absolutely is not reality, but here’s a little piece of reality: we millennials weren’t the ones destroying the economy and spiking the cost of tuition while we were in pre-school. That’s just the landscape left waiting for us by our elder generation.
We’re not entitled snowflakes waiting for everything to be handed to us. We’re just pissed off that there’s nothing left and we’re the ones being blamed for all the world’s problems.