What do millennials want?
Perhaps our generation, like the generations before us, doesn’t really know what it wants. Like them we are also only trying to navigate the world as we think we know it. We are clearly presented with much different circumstances, hence we have distinct choices and opportunities. Mistakes have been made in the past and we hope to have learned from them so we get to step much closer to a better life. A vast majority of us will always fall in love and form families. That’s just part of human nature and of cultures that is just as important. It’s always a beautiful choice for some, if not for many.
But for an increasing number of minority, it might just not be the case. With time, it’s becoming more difficult to give up convenience over the uncertainty of settling down and taking care of a husband and children (vice versa).
We will regret missing out on the happiness or fulfillment that children bring? How will I miss something I never had? Why not humble ourselves and say we will never know and it’s okay.
Our old age will be bleak and lonely? First of all not all of us are guaranteed that we will grow old. Second, what’s best is to cultivate a life rich in experiences and happy memories so in old age we get to look back on them, still enjoy our own company and relish the occasional company of acquaintances, good friends, kind strangers and relatives.
Leaving kids is one’s legacy in the world so we continue long after we’re gone? I don’t even remember the names of my great grandfathers/grandmothers. Most of us will be easily forgotten in a few hundred years unless our names were written in history books or we built a loyal following like Jesus did, or Michael Jackson, Mahatma Gandhi, Buddha.
Life is the sum of all our choices, big or small. Ethics change and so does culture. They change with time.
Unlike before, people being sold for slavery is now a crime.
Arranged marriage in some countries may still exist, but as time passes, people are becoming more resistant. Even China and Japan have very low birth rate.
Freezing women’s eggs is an available yet pricey option to delay pregnancy.
Staying single and not having kids , being a single mom, or being married without kids are not as radical as they used to be.
Visiting space as a “tourist” has already become available for billionaires.
The LGBTQ flag is colorfully loud and proud.
The Earth is the center of the solar system? No, it’s the sun. The Catholic Church managed to hide this fact for 500 years.
We will no longer see so many other changes in our lifetime. But things do change, eventually. The past generations did their best with the cards dealt for them. Millennials will want what we want, and so will the next generations after us.
