I spent the last weekend in Bataan with my current teammates at work. Out of the 9, I would say that only two of us are not part of the 2nd-gen millennials. You know, those that were not born in the 90s. 😉

4 days and 3 nights in a sleepy town, with shaky phone signal, no TV, work in between and little sleep.

Screams like your worst weekend nightmare?

NO, it wasn’t. I had a good time with the kids, actually.

They were sweet and fun to be with. And they taught me new things. Most of them techie-related, but still new learning, nonetheless.

It’s a little sad that millennials have been encircled in this big bubble of generalization that’s half-full of fallacy. I’ve been guilty of making fun of them, irritated at their impatience in life, and rolled my eyes a number of times on their out-of-nowhere sense of entitlement. They sound like they talk a whole different language and social media is their deity on existence but the amount of backlash that they are receiving from us, adults, could border into the unnecessary don’t you think?

It used to be cute when people our age would quip about what made our generation awesome. Nostalgia is good. It fills us with this warm feeling that makes us remember the good things in life. But when nostalgia turns us to be this competitive, overbearing, and buhat-bangko creatures, it ceases to be cute anymore.

Remember when we would hold this little rebellions against our parents or titos and titas because they just wouldn’t give us a break? We were just so sad, so emo back then all the time. And the thing is, we didn’t understand why they couldn’t understand us. It felt like they were always breathing down our necks.

Ang itim itim mo!

Bat ganyan ang suot mo? Hindi ka nag-aayos. Gayahin mo si Pinsan 1 at si Pinsan 2.

Magpahaba ka nga ng buhok. Mukha kang tomboy.

Etcetera etcetera

So we just turn into our trusty walkman and our favorite artist to either drown our self-imposed loneliness via impressive guitar riffs or to further fuel our self-repressed anger via angry rap lyrics.

And now, it’s happening again.

But NEWSFLASH!

We are the annoying Titos and Titas now. We are the ones not giving them a break!

So instead of being too self-righteous, why don’t we try to understand them? I know that there are a few that we can’t really stand but why should we allow the minority to prevent us from being mentors of the rest?

After all, the current’s generations attitude is the result of the past generation’s guidance. Their success is very much ours, too.