Every generation is confronted
with their own strains, pressures, and criticism of their own cohort,
but it seems that more often than not, Generation Y are given a bad rap.
Why is that?
When baby boomers were in the prime of their life,
they could afford to buy a house at the age of 25
with a wage from a job that they didn’t need qualifications for.
When we were young, we were told
that you could have or be whatever you want to be
as long as you work hard and put your mind to it.
We prided ourselves on Australia’s ideology of being the ‘land of a fair go.’
But Generation Y has been catapulted into a world
where reality has been put in favor of our dreams,
and we are no longer
looking for opportunities to live our life to the fullest
but opportunities for survival.
If you talk to us,
we are no longer dreaming of flying cars and talking dogs like we used to.
We are dreaming of the unsustainable environment in which we live,
government and capitalist intervention, and humanity struggling to survive.
And somewhere along the lines,
we stopped being your children and your grandchildren
and instead became outsiders with little repute for your norms.
Now the brunt of hard times falls on Generation Y in a particularly harsh way.
In a world that is incessantly depleting in morals, natural growth, and privacy
the pressure on our shoulders is now much more than ever before.
We are expected to succeed and excel
at a higher rate and at a younger age than ever before.
This is particularly interesting considering the number of times
Generation Y have been deemed as ‘lazy and unambitious.’
Not only do we have to mend faults
that weren’t ours to mend in the first place
but we must do so in the face of thousands of dollars of financial debt,
the little prospect of owning our own home in the near future,
political dissonance, and a world-high pandemic of mental illness.
All of us here are so focused on finding somebody else to blame for our own actions
that we have failed to see
that we are contributing to society’s destruction as a whole,
surpassing any generation gap that has come before us.
The successes and the expectations that Generation Y fulfill
are incongruent with the way that we have been portrayed.
Do you know what I see?
This generation, my generation is much stronger than you think we are.
We are growing up just, altruistic, and more resilient than ever.
We believe in an inclusive and progressive society
whose norms are foreign to your own.
We have an insatiable passion for social justice and politics,
a desire for creating an environmentally and economically sustainable future,
and an unconditional acceptance
for diversity in gender, race, age, and religion.
In despite of your criticisms and your scorn,
we will continue to stand resilient.
Your future is in our good hands.
(Applause)
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