The Quest Begins

Let me tell you the stories of three millennials.

Jonathan was twenty. He was one of those “so smart it looks easy” kids, easily getting 4.0s at Duke. He grew-up in a healthy, wealthy family and at 10 deserved to be in the Lego-creation hall-of-fame. He loved cats and cat videos and had a terrific sense of humor. He was a fabulous Varsity Tennis Player in High School and that was his life until he got into drugs. In high school he was lonely, and was able to connect with other drug users through online forums and druggies at school. He knew how to find what he was looking for and was able to figure out how to get customized shipments of rare drugs from Nepal to his parents’ home. He got addicted, and eventually after being in and out of treatment accidentally took his life.

Erik was twenty. He always had an obsession - magic tricks, Pokémon cards, cars, a wholesale t-shirt printing business. You could not pin him down; he was always going 100 miles an hour. Growing up Erik was one of those super sweet kids who lent a hand to everyone. But in middle school he was bullied, which made him distrust others, and jaded him a little. Then on top of it he suffered the unexpected death of his friend and cousin. Before his cousin died they had talked about a popsicle business – so Erik refocused his grief and started JonnyPops while still in college. It was all his parents could do to prevent him from quitting school to run his business. Now he is a full-time business owner selling thousands of popsicles a year. He is now pre-occupied with growing the business and weaving in workouts to his busy schedule.

Kristina was twenty. She always loved animals, the color orange and creating art. She was always slightly on the introverted side, and a keen observer of the world around her. But was also very relationship oriented – the ringleader and confidant to many friends. Kristina was always very self-assured, knowing who she was and what was important to her. She became a model, going to Paris and New York to walk the runways wearing 6-inch heels. Eventually she became too busy with college to continue. She found a new art outlet by doing graphic design work for her brother’s Popsicle Company. This turned into freelance work for other businesses – namely the state Zoo. This turned into a job for an agency who designs for Apple, Google and Amazon. She is now preoccupied with finding a place to live for her post-graduation transition into a career.

Each of these three were/are Millennials. Each of our stories is unique, rich and intimately intertwined with the others in our generation. For example, although Jonathan’s story is tragically and prematurely over, he was the first domino to tip the futures of both Erik and Kristina’s careers in their current direction.

Jonathan, Kristina, Erik, me and many, many others are all a part of the bigger story we millennials are responsible for weaving – the future of society. The torch is being passed to us, and as the largest, techiest and most educated generation to date – it is up to us to move the ball of the future forward as boldly and conscientiously as possible.

If you are reading this, you likely can think of a Millennial in your life that you love, or at least know: friends, coworkers, cousins, mentees, sons, daughters, nieces or nephews. We all recognize that Millennials form a distinct generation, which has a tendency towards certain behaviors and ways of thinking. I wrote a LinkedIn post about some of these trends. If you really want the Millennial 101 – read this report done by the White House. There are many macro trends that define our generation as unique.

Beyond the trends, we can also recognize each Millennial as a unique part of this generational puzzle. This era of individualization and personalization features Millennials in so many never-before-seen flavors. And we tend to express this out loud; just look at the Bertie’s Box of Facebook profiles that represent us.

A Quest is a long, arduous journey in search of something. There are few things I can think of to better describe the state of our generation. And most of us have just started this journey, recognizing their is a uncharted and untamed path ahead of us. This blog is dedicated to Jonathan, Erik and Kristina: my Millennials and their Millennial Quests. I write to honor them and many of our other compatriots, the journey we are each on and to further explore the intricacies of our generation. Many have boiled Millennials down to one of a few things: entitled, social-media-crazed, enigmas, the only hope for the future. Yet, I think all of these nicely packaged stereotypes are easy ways to avoid the multi-dimensional, complex and impactful tendencies of our generation, which continue to evolve as we journey forth. 

May the conversation started here - exploring millennials, who we are, how we think, what is working for us and not working for us - encourage thoughtful engagement among all generations with the ultimate goal of empowering our generation to be the best they can be in the years to come. And may the thoughts and many voices on this blog serve as guideposts for the many that are on their own Millennial Quests.