UNITED STATES—We love to place people into groups. You have the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and now we have Generation Z. Of course, out of those various generations many fall into one of those regions. Well, right now the talk of the town seems to be millennials and for the oddest reason, millennials receive the brunt of the mayhem. Look I’m a millennial, and I have to make things crystal clear: not all millennials think or act alike.

There are some of us who are far more intelligent and advance than our counterparts. Many of us believe in the notion of working, not being coddled or spoiled rotten by our parents. We know what it means to work hard and play hard. My biggest gripe is that you cannot group all millennials into one category because we are not all the same. I would prefer not to divulge my actual age, but I will make the argument that it seems those born after between 1986 and 1994 are of a different era to me.

I sense a lot of the millennials that I know slightly younger than me, come across a bit entitled, some lack a strong work ethic and just seem to think the world is supposed to revolve around them. Look I’m going to be 200 percent honest with you: it irks me to the core! It’s almost as if you attempt to correct them or if you attempt to offer them any sort of advice, they don’t want to hear it. They know all the answers, there is nothing you can tell them, you cannot educate them to think or feel one way over another. So at this point I’m over trying to readjust the path for my younger brothers, who just have no clue how brutal the real world can be.

Some just think it’s no big deal to have a new job each week; not really, it does not show the best consistency with your resume or having to explain why you’ve had maybe 10 jobs in the past year. Either you’re a bad employee or you can’t keep a job if your life depended on it. Who knows it’s probably all of the above. I mean I know people within my age range who have held the same job for at least 5 years or longer, we have started families, we understand the importance of responsibility and we’re not afraid to stand up and let our voices be heard.

Not all of us hide behind our parents or run to our parents the first chance we get because we have to face a bit of adversity that we never expected. We are wise beyond our years, we are smart, we are eager, we are driven and yes we have no qualms about letting our political rhetoric be heard. Like seriously, I know some Baby Boomers and those from Generation X who never voted once in their lifetime.

Yeah, that drives me bonkers to the core because before I was even of legal age to vote, I wanted to vote, and heck you have people double my age who could care less about going to the polling location to cast their vote for City Council, Mayor, Governor or the President of the United States of America.

Let me best say this, do not judge a book by its cover, you might be surprised to learn that a lot of millennials are much wiser, smarter and gracious than the world gives us credit for. We might be young, but not all of us are naïve.

Written By Kelsey Thomas