As I searched the Web yesterday, I found an article, a blog, and a forum thread on “I hate Boomers.” In fact, Google returned a page of results for the statement.
My reply to this hatred of Boomers is “I love Generation Xers.” I love them for many reasons, but cover only seven broad ones in this article.
I haven’t always loved Generation Xers. In fact, the first time I taught them at The University of Oklahoma, I didn’t like them much. They were totally different from any students I’d taught in past. They accepted nothing that I taught at face value and often challenged me.
I was compelled to start researching Generation X in order to better understand and teach my students. So the first reason that I love Generation Xers is because they motivated a line of research that has been my passion for the last 15 years.
At that time, I found adjectives like “cynics, whiners, drifters, and malcontents” that mostly Boomer writers used to describe Generation X. But as I worked with Generation Xers, I began to think of them more as they were later described - “ambitious, savvy, independent, pragmatic, and self-sufficient”.
So the second reason that I love Generation Xers is because all these adjectives somewhat describe them, and yet no set of adjectives can truly describe the diversity within Generation X.
Generation Xers’ unwillingness to be duped by a person just because they hold a position of authority, and their independent thinking and strong convictions comprise the third reason that I love Generation Xers. It’s ironic that characteristics that first frustrated me with them, I now consider strengths.
I also love Generation Xers because they don’t accept that they have to put their careers before their families in order to be successful. I was one of those Boomer women who had a Generation X latch-key child, and I regret sacrificing time with my daughter to build a career in what was then a male-dominated profession. So that’s the fourth reason.
On the other hand, the fifth reason that I love Generation Xers is because of their entrepreneur spirit, their willingness to take the big risks, and their drive to beat the predictions that they would be the first generation to have a lower lifestyle than their parents.
The sixth reason that I love Generation Xers is because they are patriotic and spiritual in an independent manner. These and many other Generation X characteristics have earned them respect as adults, and yes, even from Boomers.
And seventh, I love Generation Xers because they are just the people that their Boomer parents reared them to be. They didn’t portray the characteristics that we taught them exactly the way we imaged, but they do live those characteristics everyday, and this world is stronger and better because of them.