The Millennial Problem Pt. 1

There is a certain sect, somewhere in the middle of the millennial crowd that seems to have missed the boat in life. I notice it rather often when I look around. They are not married, are weirdly unsuccessful, they don’t have children, haven’t had a relationship in a long time or, the relationships are oddly unstable.

It’s to the point now, where they are noticing that gen-z is getting married and having children, gen-Z is starting the new businesses, gen-Z is buying the unaffordable houses, and everyone else is moving on without them. I have met some of these people and I wouldn’t say that their situation was born of a lack of trying, but rather from misplaced ideals. Somehow life has passed them by even though they were right in the middle of it.

I speak broadly, but I know this written net will catch the particular person that I am trying to reach.

You can be okay.

This group of millennials grew up with some sort of skill (be it the gift of gab, they shone at playing an instrument, or they were funny, etc). The millennials were going to change the world. They were told that you could be anything. Go into STEM, or don’t go into STEM. They didn’t have to study very hard but got decent grades and were able to get by. Participation trophies were becoming a thing but they could still laugh at concept. The world was their oyster they were told, just get a college degree and you can get a job anywhere.

This is the era. Born between 1985 and 1993ish. They lived on the tail end of an analog world and right at the cusp of the modern digital world. Summers were still spent outside but video games were part of life and might be getting “too realistic.” The dot com boom does a crash landing into the end of the world at the turning of the clocks. But wait, the world didn’t end. but the towers fall a year later. High school is ending, college is beginning. The markets are on fire.

What a great time to be a young person. The youngest billionaire was connecting everyone online. Even if you dropped out of college (which you won’t of course), you could probably start a company like Google or PayPal which had survived the crash of the internet. This was the time to have fun.

2008

You’ve recently graduated (within a year or two) or you are about to graduate. The young people in real estate who were making millions aren’t doing so well anymore. You just bought a house or you were about to buy a house and suddenly the world is not the same anymore. Foreclosures are on the news 24/7, major banks are closing down, major businesses are going bankrupt, and then everything goes silent.

Let me ask you this. Did you ever recover?