Question. When you think of millennials, do you think fun?
Is there anything resembling fun floating in the air as a buzzword around millennials?
As a millennial, I can answer that question and say no. We’re educated. But fun, no.
If you read anything about us, our thing is oversharing, debt and failing to launch. We’re at home with degrees that aren’t paying for themselves. We’re sensitive and self-absorbed, but we wallow in our situation.
Adulting is a huge buzzword for us. Image your parents. They pay their bills, in their owns place and are in a relationship, at or nearing marriage. They have good jobs, assets. They eat right and spend money on the right things. Things we’re too distracted to pay attention to. I hate the word. For one, I feel mocked by it, and two, it makes the mixture of responsibility and discipline, and maybe another word seem like a foreign concept.
Being an adult is all about choices. And having fun is a choice some people forget to do, or don’t think about making. As you get older, having fun of course changes. What you can do to have fun has to fit into your life. Fun with money definitely changes. With bills and rent, spending fun is greatly restricted. Unless you make good money. Hobbies are great and cheap, but having a full time job and maybe kids significantly reduces time. Time and money is what gets away as you get older. And maybe you have to sacrifice for your significant other or kids. But fun is important. Fun is what keeps you going and what makes life enjoyable. Countless studies will tell you fun and activity will keep you going forever. Not really, but close enough.
I feel that finding the balance of having fun, but also taking care of business is what makes an adult. That’s the true mastery of adulthood. A lot of the time people will say the best years are in your youth with no responsibilities. And while that can be true, the ability to be able to make changes to the state of your life without needing someone else is an incredible one. We can have agency at all ages, but independence is something different all together. Life can throw awful things at us, but it can also give you a chance to change things.
Many things in life are choices. Fun is one of them. It can be something small that’ll bring joy to your day. These small things make life that much more bearable. Paying bills sucks, but saving up to retire at 40 is incredible. The half full glass is cliché but very true. Life is what you make. And you can chose to make it fun.
The Grow Up 