Last year, I had a panic attack about the age I was going to be turning (the age I am now).
It wasn't a serious panic attack, more like a state of denial.
I realised that soon, my early 20s would be over and the said age I would be turning meant that I was deep into the dark trenches of adulthood.
That terrified me for some reason, and I ended up going into a panic.
It was really embarrassing when I think about it now.
I mean, who becomes frantic over a birthday and getting a year older?
Anyway, after my birthday passed, I decided to just accept my fate.
After all, I knew one day I would have to take the reigns of my life and steer myself into this great unknown called adulthood.
Millennials called it adulting.
They (I am half millennial by the way) coined the term back when I was still in university and I was just starting to get an idea of what adulting could really mean.
Anyway, as I was also simultaneously trying to understand what it takes to be a millennial, I found myself almost graduating and heading into the workplace.
In the workplace, we didn't really have a good reputation.
They called us entitled, privileged and rush.
Apparently, we were constantly looking for easy ways to do things that were traditionally considered or expected to be done the hard way.
This is true because come on, who wants to be working hard when they could be barely working?
The other thing is wanting results now rather than later. Instant gratification.
Can you really blame us for wanting results as soon as we do a certain task?
We, who grew up in households with microwaves and got our first smartphones as teenagers, so we can warm our food while chatting with friends across the country?
Instant gratification is literally wired into our psyches.
Anyway, millennials got so much slack from society and older generations that I thought we would be used to it by now.
However, Gen Zs are now in workplaces (and I am also half Gen Z) and they, too, have not been absolved from getting any slack.
These guys are bolder than millennials ever could be, and they are not afraid to show it.
The same boldness is what they are getting criticised for by society and workplaces in general.
The way they dress, the way they speak, the way they show up unapologetically.
Even millennials are part of the group who are giving Gen Zs hell when they should be rallying behind them against the forces that are out to get them.
They are trailblazing in a new way, and we should be embracing them instead of rebuking them for being different, the same way Millennials were different from the usual.
What I admire the most about Gen Zs is that they know exactly what they want.
I mean, how many people can say with certainty that they want to pursue careers on TikTok instead of the regular 9 to 5 office job that is financially secure?
These kids are so bold in their pursuits that are far from the ordinary that we are used to, and for that alone, people need to get off their backs.
