I’m 24-years-old, and I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing with my life. Sure, I have a plan – I have a job, I’m in graduate school, etc. But, for a while, I was freaking out about it. I’m still freaking out about it most days – but I’m slowly starting to realize that not having it all together is okay – actually, it’s normal.
Why do we feel such immense pressure to have our lives all sorted and figured out in a neat and picture perfect timeline? Why do we feel like we’re never doing enough and we’re not good enough at this stage in our lives?
Social media perhaps?
People spend more time on social networks and social media than they do doing anything else during the day – eating, working, going to the bathroom. It’s no wonder that we’re always pinning ourselves up against other people – destined for failure in the self-worth department.
Sandwiched between Gen-Xers and Millennials, ‘Xennials’ are typically classified as those being born between 1977 and 1985. They’re a microgeneration that copes with the clash between Gen-X’s cynicism and Millennial optimism.
Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996 and Gen-Xers were born between 1965 and 1980. The term ‘Xennial’ to describe the generation on the cusp of the two first appeared in GOOD magazine as a way to define the older Millennials who shared a different experience than the rest of the generation growing up.
The term is a solution to recent complaints by “mature millennials” that they don’t feel as though they fit the avocado-eating, Snapchat-loving mold of the endlessly dissected generation — but also don’t really remember the first Star Wars movies.
Xennials are also called “the Oregon Trail Generation” because of how widespread the educational game was in the “cutting-edge” computer labs they had in elementary and high school.
There are plenty of things Xennials remember that are just fuzzy memories to Millennials. Things like pay phones, landlines, and sitting through countless 1-800-COLLECT commercials.
The landline wars were intense until cell phones came along, and Xennials remember having to talk to their friends’ parents on the phone before reaching their friends. Call waiting and extra phone lines were godsends for the Xennial generation.
Mean Girls may be the defining women’s movie for Millennials, but Xennial women grew up watching Clueless on repeat at slumber parties. And the cutting-edge computer-generated dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were truly revolutionary on the big screen. Goonies, Heathers and Dazed And Confused were also seminal Xennial coming-of-age movies.
Being a little too old for Pokémon and Neopets.
These pop culture phenomena took off a little too late to get Xennials on board.
Getting that first clunky cell phone in their teens or 20s that was “for emergencies.”
Ah, those indestructible Nokia phones! Before Temple Run and Candy Crush, Xennials killed time by trying to beat their high score on Snake.
Sure, Millennials are the generation that turned texting into an artform, but Xennials were the pioneers who had to really work to make texting happen.
Well before MP3s became a thing, CDs were a welcome change for Xennials, who grew up with cassettes and top-40 radio stations that had actual human DJs.
Also MTV showed mostly music videos.
Today, MTV hosts a raft of original programming, but Xennials remember a time when you could tune in to MTV and either see a music video or a VJ introducing one.
And the O.J. Simpson Bronco chase and double murder trial divided America on racial lines.
It was called the “Trial Of The Century” and helped launch the Kardashian’s father to fame (or infamy). News coverage of the double murder trial was non-stop and his acquittal rocked the nation.
Xennials also remember when Columbine was the first and only shocking school shooting.
Long before the current epidemic of gun violence plaguing U.S. schools, the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado shocked the country. Ask a Xennial and they can probably tell you where they were when they heard the news.