Time of your life

BAGUIA

Do you consider yourself a millennial?

What does that mean?

Some people say a millennial is anyone who was born onward from as far back as 1980, anyone whose formative years saw or coming of age occurred around the turn of the 21st century, the new millennium.

Others say being a millennial is hinged on access to the internet thereby excluding from the group the underprivileged in the digital divide.

Being a millennial has come with a baggage of unsavory descriptions to which a noticeable number of youths take exception. Note for instance how some protesters against martial law howled against characterizations of millennials as indifferent to history.

At the 80th commencement exercises of the University of the Philippines Cebu, the valedictorian of the Class of 2017 pep talked her fellow millennials to acts of service for the country, against the prognostications of those who dismiss them as a lazy, narcissistic and good-for-nothing bunch.

The itch to find a temporal affiliation seems to be borne of the social scientific labeling of persons according to their birth years. The ones who were born before the Second World War were traditionalists who were succeeded by the Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, and finally, the millennials.

The United Kingdom’s The Guardian recently published a story stating that people born between 1977 and 1983 are not millennials but xennials — young adults who remember a time when there was no internet.

An article on Esquire, in the meantime, warns millennials that their time is almost over because the succeeding generation dubbed edgers who are currently in high school or college is arriving.

I do not know how meaningful is the generational labeling of people in the grand scheme of things. In the first place, is it really possible to profile a generation’s behavior? Perhaps this question is best left to psychologists, sociologists and other behavioral scientists. Economically, it seems quite useful as profit-seeking companies must cater to the wants of youths of any given generation who collectively have considerable disposable income. The needs of older people, from newlyweds to the elderly, are respectively rather homogenous.

Teleologically, what generation one belongs to should not be such a big deal. Everyone who is fortunate enough to stand on the threshold of maturity have to negotiate realities that are shielded from the whims of fashion. Xennial, millennial or edger, you have to find your calling and muster the courage to respond to it with a wholehearted yes; to embrace the sorrows and glories of your chosen path — freelance or full-time, professional or vocational; to graciously let go of those who can no longer walk with you and find the friend within the stranger you inevitably encounter every day; to adapt to the demands of the home where you are no longer a child; to be responsible with your finances; to exercise the will to be charitable; to shield the flame of hope though at least 90 percent of breaking news seems to mirror how badly the world is screwed; to accept that your time could be up long before sociologists coin a term for the generation that succeeds the edgers and therefore to learn to sift the wheat from the tares of existence. To food, shelter, clothing and exercise, add family, friends and faith. And books. And music. And fighting global warming.

Besides, we all need one another’s help, notwithstanding developments in the language of generational segmentation. Those in their prime must accompany seniors even as they rear younger generations. Youth must not get wasted on youth but must be spent on gaining the wisdom of the ages and on helping others especially those who have a hard time coping with an increasingly speedy world. Seniors must make available the wealth of their experience as their legacy to the young.